Banned Items

These can't be sold, offered or asked for anywhere on KhojKhobor: in shops, classified ads, services, jobs, posts, groups or messages. Anything else that is illegal to sell in India is banned too, even if it isn't listed here.

1. Never allowed

• Drugs: ganja, charas, brown sugar, yaba and other narcotics, and codeine cough syrups or other medicines sold to get high.
• Alcohol, including country liquor.
• E-cigarettes, vapes and e-hookahs, and gutka or pan masala with tobacco.
• Guns, ammunition and explosives, including country-made pistols. Toy and water guns are fine.
• Wild animals, birds and their parts: ivory, tiger or leopard skins and claws, deer horn, pangolins, star tortoises, turtle meat, Indian parrots and munias, owls, shahtoosh shawls, hatha jodi and siyar singhi.
• Counterfeits: “first copy”, “master copy” or fake branded goods, and fake currency.
• Fake or forged documents: Aadhaar, PAN, certificates, degrees, mark sheets and licences.
• Human organs, blood and body parts.
• Finding out a baby's sex before birth, and abortion pills without a prescription.
• Money schemes and gambling: chit funds and deposit schemes that aren't registered, “money doubling”, satta, matka and betting.
• Black magic and vashikaran, and “cures” for illnesses by magic or charms.
• Stolen goods, and anything you don't own or aren't allowed to sell.
• Adult content and sexual services, and anything that harms or exploits children.
• Hacking and spying: malware, other people's personal data, pre-activated SIM cards, and hidden cameras for secret recording.

2. Only from licensed sellers

Shops that hold the licence may sell these in their shop on KhojKhobor. They can't be sold in classified ads.

• Medicines: only licensed pharmacies, and not prescription-only medicines, because the pharmacist has to see the prescription.
• Cigarettes and other tobacco: only to people aged 18 or older, in packs with the health warning.
• Fireworks: only shops licensed to sell them.
• Seeds, fertilisers and pesticides: only licensed dealers.
• Pets (dogs, cats, birds and fish): only breeders and pet shops registered with the State Animal Welfare Board. Farm animals are fine, and so is giving a pet a new home for free.
• Packaged or cooked food: sellers need the FSSAI registration or licence the law asks for, and can show its number on their shop. Farmers selling their own produce don't need one.

3. Selling as a person, without a shop

Anyone can sell or give away something of their own in classified ads: an old harmonium, a cycle, books, or what they grew themselves. A few more rules apply there, because there's no shop or licence behind it:

• Food: only what you grew yourself, like fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants from your garden or roof. Cooked, packaged, pickled or otherwise processed food needs an FSSAI registration, so sell it from a shop that has one.
• Pets: only for free, to give them a new home. Selling a pet needs registration as a breeder or pet shop.
• Seeds and fertiliser, compost included: only for free, from your own garden. Selling them needs a dealer's licence. Plants, saplings and cuttings are fine to sell.
• Nothing from the licensed list above, not even for free: medicines, pesticides, tobacco or fireworks.
• Up to 10 ads at a time. After 30 days an ad stops showing and we tell you, so you can renew it if it's still there.
• Buyers message you on KhojKhobor, so your number stays private. You can choose to show a WhatsApp button to signed-in buyers, once you've checked your number.
• People who do a job or make things can list themselves without a shop. Their area is shown, never their home address, and their number only to people who are signed in.

4. Services that need a qualification or licence

• Doctors, dentists and other health services: only registered practitioners, and no promises of a cure.
• Lawyers aren't allowed to advertise their services, so legal services can't be offered here.
• Passenger rides: taxi, auto, toto and bike-taxi rides can't be offered as a service, because booking rides through a website needs a transport aggregator licence. Moving goods, and hiring a driver for your own vehicle, are fine.

5. What we do about it

• Listings that name the most obvious banned things are refused when you try to save them.
• Anyone can report a listing, service, job or post with Selling something banned. Our team checks reports and removes what breaks these rules.
• We may close the accounts of people who keep trying, and we tell the police about anything seriously illegal.

Think we've refused something by mistake? Write to [email protected]. See also our Terms of Use.