Hello Folks,

Are you an investor?

Have you ever faced or facing wrongdoing pertaining to security markets?

Are you aware that you can lodge compliant against any share or stock or other financial product dealt by SEBI?

This write-up is boon for investors who wiling to complaint in SEBI Act, SCRA Act, Depositories Act or complaint under section 24 of Companies Act, 2013. For all the investor- SCORES is an online platform designed to help investors to lodge their complaints, pertaining to securities market, online with SEBI against listed companies and SEBI registered intermediaries.

SCORES has been in existence for 9 years. With the launch of mobile app, it has become much easier for investors to lodge their complaint, while registering the complaints, mandatory details like name of the investors, PAN, contact details and e-mail ID are to be provided for registration.

SCORES mobile application was launched in March 2020.

All complaints received by SEBI against listed companies and SEBI registered intermediaries are dealt through SCORES not only for Shares, Stock etc, Even investors can lodge complaints pertaining to commodity derivative market in SCORES. SEBI Complaints Redress System (SCORES).

PROCEDURE TO REGISTER COMPLAINT SCORES:

1. It has been made mandatory to register on SCORES for lodging a complaint, web-based centralized grievance redressal system
2. To become a registered user of SCORES, investors may click on “Register here” under “Investor Corner” appearing on the homepage of SCORES portal.
3. Investors will have to fill in Registration form. Fields like Name, Address, E-mail Address, PAN and Mobile Number are mandatory fields and are required to be filled up.
4. The username and password of SCORES will be sent to the investor’s registered email id. If an investor is already a registered user, they can login by entering their username and password.
5. After logging into SCORES, investors must click on “Complaint Registration” under “Investor Corner”.
6. Investor should provide complaint details
7. Investors must select the correct complaint category, entity name, and nature of complaint.
8. Investors must provide complaint details in brief (up to 1000 characters).
9. A PDF document (up to 2M B of size for each nature of complaint) can also be attached along with the complaint as supporting document.
10. On successful submission of complaint, system generated unique registration number will be displayed on the screen which may be noted for future correspondence. A text message will also be sent to the investor informing them about registration of the complaint.

NOTE: In case, you are not able to register a complaint online, you can send your complaint through post to any of the SEBI offices whose addresses are given at SEBI Website on “http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/templates/SebiAddresses.html

FOLLOWING ARE MATTER IN WHICH COMPLAINT CANNOT BE REGISTERED AT SCORES

PROCEDURE TO CHECK COMPAINT STATUS.

To check your complaint status, click on “View Complaint Status” under “Investor Corner” on the homepage.

Step 1: Provide the complaint registration number which was allotted at the time of registration of your complaint.

Step 2: Please enter your password.

a) In case of web complaint, your email address is your password.

b) In case of physical complaints sent to SEBI, please enter the password which was communicated by SEBI in the acknowledgement letter sent to you.

On verifying the correctness of registration number, password and security code, the current status of your complaint is displayed.

BONUS NOTE: Further, you may also contact SEBI toll free Helpline service number 1800 266 7575 or 1800 22 7575 and tell them the registration no. of your complaint whereby they can provide you with the status of your complaint.

Moving Further let’s Understand some key points on which complaint can be lodge on SCORE.

1. Complain about market or price manipulation or violation of Insider trading regulations:

The information provided under the categories of Price/market manipulation and Insider trading will be treated as market intelligence. Therefore, no complaint number and acknowledgement shall be sent to you. Also, the same would not be tracked through SCORES. This information shall be treated as confidential.

This information will be analysed and if found necessary, further action will be taken. The status of information cannot be ascertained as SEBI conducts the investigations confidentially in a holistic manner.

In order to aid SEBI to carry out its surveillance activity, you are encouraged to provide correct and complete information. SEBI will neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation. Any regulatory actions taken by SEBI are published at SEBI website at www[dot]sebi[dot]gov[dot]in.

• Alleged violation of Takeover/Delisting Regulations by the promoters/acquirers:

You can lodge your complaint about alleged violation of Takeover Regulations and Delisting Regulations by the acquirers/promoters of the target company. However, status of your complaint cannot be disclosed since SEBI conducts examinations confidentially.

As a matter of policy, SEBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of any examination/investigation. Any regulatory action taken by SEBI is published at SEBI website at www.sebi.gov.in after the proceedings are completed.

Complaints Registered on SCORES can be refer to arbitration too, Lets understand this in a Better way.

If you have an account with the broker or a depository participant (DP), you probably agreed to use only arbitration to settle all disputes with your broker or DP. But even if you did not, you may choose to use arbitration to settle disputes.

You generally cannot pursue an issue through arbitration if it is barred by limitation prescribed. When deciding whether to arbitrate—or, if it is a choice, to sue in court—bear in mind that if your broker or DP goes out of business or declares bankruptcy, you might not be able to recover your money— even if the arbitrator or court rules in your favor.

However, with certain restriction to the nature of transactions, Stock Exchanges may settle the claim of an investor up to a limit prescribed in the „investor protection fund‟ guidelines of the respective Stock Exchange.

Simplified arbitration can be a less costly alternative. You should carefully review the rules governing simplified arbitration before you file a claim. Again, you should always weigh the costs of arbitrating against the likelihood of being able to collect any award in your favor, especially if the brokerage firm has left the industry or gone bankrupt.

Firms that stay in business typically pay the arbitration awards levied against them, but defunct firms may not.

Assumptions: In certain cases, the entity or company denies wrongdoing, and it remains unclear as to who is wrong or whether any wrongdoing occurred at all.

If this happens, SEBI cannot act as a judge or an arbitrator and force the entity or company to resolve your complaint. Further, SEBI cannot act as your personal representative or attorney. But the law allows you to take legal action on your own.

On a Closing Lines:

In an Extreme Scenario where you are not satisfied with the Complaint Disposal-

The investor may tick on the ‘unsatisfied’ icon and then provide the reasons thereto. However, the investor shall have to mandatorily provide the reasons for being unsatisfied with the redressal.

This one-time option shall be available to an investor for a period of fifteen days from the date of closure of his complaint in SCORES and the complaint shall be routed to the Supervising Officer.