The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked all recognised stock exchanges, including commodity derivatives exchanges as well as depositories to launch an online web-based complaints redressal system on the lines of SCORES.
SCORES is an online platform that Sebi had launched way back in 2013 to help security market investors lodge complaints with it online against listed companies and Sebi-registered intermediaries.
Sebi has now asked all exchanges and depositories to implement the grievance redressal mechanism on or before January 4, 2023.
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What Is SCORES?
SCORES is an online platform that is designed to help investors lodge their complaints related to the securities market online with the market regulator against listed companies and Sebi-registered intermediaries. All complaints received by Sebi against these entities are dealt through SCORES.
SCORES allows investors to lodge, follow up, and track the redressal status while minimising the time and location-related restraints. The online redressal system enables customers to file complaints, communicate their grievances, and demand redressal through the Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC).
The Exceptions
However, complaints against some companies cannot be dealt with on SCORES. These are the instances:
Complaints against unlisted or delisted businesses on the stock exchange’s dissemination board cannot be filed on SCORES.
Likewise, complaints cannot be filed against a sick firm or a corporation where a moratorium has been imposed in winding up, or where there is an ongoing insolvency procedure, or the said company is undergoing liquidation.
Complaints against corporations where the corporate name is a Registrar of Companies (RoC) strike-off or a vanishing company according to the list released by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) also cannot be filed.
Sub-judice complaints, i.e. cases under consideration by a court of law, quasi-judicial processes, and so on cannot be filed on SCORES, either.
Complaints cannot be filed against companies that fall under the purview of other regulatory bodies, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the Competition Commission of India (CCI), and so on, or those that fall under the purview of other ministries, such as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
This exclusion also includes those companies where according to Section 125 of the Companies Act, 2013, unclaimed dividends, shares on which no dividend has been paid or claimed, matured debentures, sale proceeds of fractional shares, and redemption amount of preference shares that have been unpaid or unclaimed for seven years or more are transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In such cases, investors can directly claim the above from the IEPF Authority because it is outside the purview of Sebi.
Thus, in a nutshell matters on complaints which cannot be considered in SCORES are:
Complaints not pertaining to investments in the securities market
Anonymous complaints (except whistleblower complaints)
Incomplete or un-specific complaints
Allegations without supporting documents
Suggestions or seeking guidance/explanation
Not satisfied with trading price of the shares of the companies
Non-listing of shares of private offer
Disputes arising out of private agreement with companies/intermediaries
Matter involving fake/forged documents
Complaints on matters not in Sebi purview
Complaints about any unregistered/un-regulated activity
