SEBI has now set up SCORES, the Sebi COmplaints REdressal System. This is now an online investor grievance redressal systems for investors in companies. (See Circular)
Earlier if you had a grouse against a company – say, for non payment of dividend – you would complain to the company. The company could then choose to respond or ignore the complaint – and many were ignoring them. SEBI requires that each company files the number of complaints received and addressed, but companies can choose to make up this data.
The use of the SCORES web site will be to centralize such complaints and ensure everyone has access to the redressal system.
It was fairly easy to set up an account, with an email confirmation. After that I found that I could complain against:
- Listed Companies
- Registrars or Transfer Agents
- Brokers
- Stock Exchanges
- Depositories and DPs
- Mutual Funds
- Merchant Bankers
- FIIs
- Underwriters
And many more.
You can also give information to SEBI about Price Manipulation and Insider Trading. And you can upload documents with each complaint as well but a maximum of 1MB as a PDF. You can of course print any document as PDF using free PDF printers.
The FAQ isn’t too useful but I hope they will expand this section in future.
What I’d look for in a few months is how the site helps investors and the statistics of complaint resolution. Let’s wait and watch. Oh, if you have a complaint, do register it there, and let me know how it goes!
