Grievance Officer (India)
IT Rules 2021 — responds within 24 hrs (acknowledgement) / 15 days (resolution)
1. Grievance Officer — IT Rules 2021 (India)
Under Rule 3(2)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, StudyVerdict designates a Grievance Officer to receive and resolve complaints from users and affected parties in India.
Grievance Officer contact: grievance@studyverdict.com
Timelines under IT Rules 2021:
- Acknowledgement: Within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint.
- Resolution: Within 15 days of receipt (complaints under Rule 3(2)(b)(ii) regarding exposure of private sexual images may be actioned within 24 hours).
Complaints may be filed regarding: (a) removal of information violating Indian law, (b) content that violates StudyVerdict's policies, or (c) any grievance regarding use of the platform.
2. DMCA Takedown Notices (US Copyright)
StudyVerdict is an intermediary. If you believe content on StudyVerdict infringes your copyright, you may submit a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. §512. While we operate under Indian law, we extend DMCA-equivalent protections to copyright holders globally.
2.1 Required Information
A valid DMCA takedown notice must include:
- Your full legal name and contact information (address, phone, email).
- Identification of the copyrighted work(s) you claim have been infringed.
- Identification of the specific URL(s) on StudyVerdict where the allegedly infringing content appears.
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
- Your physical or electronic signature.
Send complete notices to: legal@studyverdict.com. Incomplete notices will not be actioned; we will respond explaining the deficiency.
2.2 What Happens After You File
Upon receipt of a complete and valid notice, we will:
- Acknowledge receipt within 2 business days.
- Review the claimed infringement. If it appears valid, we will temporarily disable access to the content within 7 business days.
- Notify the user who posted the content that a claim has been made.
- Restore access if a valid counter-notice is received (see §2.3 below).
2.3 Counter-Notice Process
If you believe your content was removed in error (e.g., you have a licence, or the claim is a fair use), you may submit a counter-notice including:
- Your name, address, phone, and email.
- Identification of the content that was removed and its URL before removal.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification.
- Consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for the district in which your address is located (if you are in the US) or any judicial district (if outside the US).
- Your physical or electronic signature.
Send counter-notices to: legal@studyverdict.com. We will forward it to the original complainant. If no legal action is filed within 10 business days of the counter-notice, we will restore the content.
3. Defamation & Legal Notice Response — Standard Operating Procedure
We receive legal notices claiming that published reviews are defamatory. This section documents our decision tree before it is ever needed — so both providers and reviewers understand exactly what will happen.
Our general position: A verified student's honest account of their experience with a service they paid for is: (a) opinion, not a statement of fact about the provider's absolute quality; (b) protected under the defence of justification (truth) in Indian defamation law; and (c) protected under Section 79 of the IT Act as user- generated content on an intermediary platform that complies with due diligence requirements.
We do not pre-emptively remove reviews in response to legal threats. The receipt of a legal notice does not, by itself, trigger removal.
Receipt & triage (Day 0)
Legal notices are routed to legal@studyverdict.com and acknowledged within 24 hours. The notice is assigned a reference number and logged in the internal legal register.
Preliminary review (Day 1–3)
We assess whether the notice: (a) identifies a specific review or content item, (b) identifies a specific legal basis, and (c) comes from a party with standing to send it. Notices that fail any of these are responded to explaining the deficiency.
Content review (Day 3–10)
We review the identified content against our Community Guidelines, our Editorial Independence Policy, and the applicable law cited in the notice. If the content is clearly truthful user-generated opinion, we respond citing the defence of justification and our IT Act §79 intermediary status.
Reviewer notification (Day 3–10)
Where legally permissible, we notify the reviewer that their content is subject to a legal challenge. We do not disclose the reviewer's identity. We give the reviewer 7 days to provide evidence supporting the accuracy of their review.
Decision (Day 10–14)
We issue a written decision: (a) uphold the review and explain why, (b) request the reviewer to correct specific factual errors, or (c) remove the content if it fails our standards or if a court order requires it. All decisions are logged in the audit trail.
Escalation (Court order received)
If a court of competent jurisdiction issues an injunction or removal order, we comply within the time specified in the order, or within 24 hours if no time is specified. We do not pre-emptively remove content in anticipation of a court order that has not yet been issued.
3.1 What We Will Not Do
- Remove a truthful review because a provider sends a legal notice without a court order.
- Identify a reviewer to a provider claiming defamation (without a court order compelling disclosure).
- Treat a legal notice from a paying subscriber differently from one from an unpaid provider.
- Remove a review before completing the process described above.
3.2 What We Will Do
- Respond to every legal notice in writing, citing specific legal reasons for our decision.
- Correct factual errors in a review if the provider provides documentary evidence that a stated fact is false (e.g., a date, a price, a delivered-by date).
- Comply with a valid court order within the time specified in the order.
- Log every legal notice, our response, and the outcome in our internal legal register.
4. Process for Educational Institutions
Educational institutions sometimes contact us regarding reviews that reference their institution's name or policies. Our position:
- Reviews that criticise a service provider (assignment help company) are not reviews of the institution, even if they mention institutional policies on academic integrity.
- Reviews that falsely state a specific institution's policy will be corrected if the institution provides the correct policy in writing.
- General discussion of academic integrity policies in the context of a student's experience is protected opinion and editorial commentary.
Institutions should direct queries to: legal@studyverdict.com
5. Abuse of the Takedown Process
Submitting a false DMCA notice or a knowingly baseless defamation claim is itself a legal risk for the submitter. Under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. §512(f)), a person who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing may be liable for damages. Under Indian law, filing a vexatious legal notice may expose the sender to costs.
We log all notices. If a provider or institution demonstrates a pattern of bad-faith takedown attempts targeting truthful reviews, we may publish a notice of that pattern on the affected provider's listing page.