How to Complain Against a Stock Broker or Listed Company on SEBI SCORES

If your stock broker, depository participant, mutual fund or a listed company has not fixed a problem you raised, you can file a complaint against it on SEBI SCORES, the SEBI Complaints Redress System. The entity then gets 21 calendar days to resolve it and upload an Action Taken Report (ATR). An unsatisfactory answer can be taken through two review levels on SCORES and, after that, online conciliation and arbitration through the SMART ODR portal.

The workflow below follows SEBI's circular of 20 September 2023 on SCORES and its link to online dispute resolution (SEBI/HO/OIAE/IGRD/CIR/P/2023/156), whose complaint workflow has applied from 4 December 2023. The ODR steps follow the master circular for online resolution of disputes in the securities market issued on 28 December 2023. Both were checked as on 28 September 2026.

First check whether SCORES is the right forum

SCORES handles complaints against three groups: companies whose securities are listed, SEBI-registered intermediaries (stock brokers, depository participants, mutual funds, portfolio managers, investment advisers, registrars and others) and market infrastructure institutions such as stock exchanges and depositories.

Annexure II of the SCORES circular lists matters SEBI will not take up there. The ones investors run into most often are:

• complaints against unlisted or delisted companies;
• matters already pending before a court or quasi-judicial body;
• issues that fall under another regulator, such as RBI, IRDAI or PFRDA;
• companies under a resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, or under liquidation;
• anonymous complaints, and complaints without the details and documents needed to act on them.

A dispute about a failed UPI debit to your trading account is usually a bank matter. It goes to the bank and then follows the RBI route explained in the note on how much your bank must refund for online fraud. The broker side of the same transaction, for example funds received by the broker but not credited to your ledger, is a SCORES matter.

Step 1: Write to the entity and keep proof

Paragraph 1 of Annexure II says investors shall first take up the grievance with the entity itself, through the official who handles compliance and investor grievances. The SCORES FAQs add that the portal forwards every complaint to the entity automatically. Even so, a written complaint to the broker or company first gives it a chance to fix the problem quickly and gives you a dated record to attach later.

Send it by email to the grievance or compliance address published on the entity's website. Mention your client ID or folio number, the dates and amounts involved, what went wrong and what you want done. Save the acknowledgement and any reply.

Step 2: Register and lodge the complaint on SCORES

You register once on the SCORES portal. The SCORES FAQs list the mandatory details: name, address, email, PAN, mobile number and date of birth. A person without a PAN can use a PAN Exempted KYC Registration Number (PEKRN).

When you lodge the complaint, pick the entity carefully. A complaint against the wrong entity, such as the mutual fund's registrar when the issue lies with the distributor, wastes a full cycle. Attach the documents that support your claim: contract notes, ledger statements, demat holding statements, your earlier emails and the entity's replies.

The one-year limitation

Paragraph 3 of Annexure II allows a SCORES complaint within one year from the date the cause of action arose. Paragraph 4 lets SEBI reject a complaint filed after that. If an unauthorised trade was put through in your account on 14 March 2026, the safest course is to count the year from that date. Do not assume it runs from the day you noticed the trade in a later statement.

Step 3: What happens after you file

Paragraphs 1.2 to 3.3 of Annexure I set the sequence:

1. The complaint goes to the entity and, at the same time, to its designated body. For brokers and listed companies this is the stock exchange, for depository participants the depository, and for mutual funds the Association of Mutual Funds in India.
2. The entity must resolve the complaint and upload its ATR on SCORES within 21 calendar days of receipt. The ATR reaches you automatically.
3. A dissatisfied complainant may ask for a first review within 15 calendar days from the date of the ATR. The designated body also takes up the complaint on its own if the entity misses the 21-day deadline.
4. The designated body must give a revised ATR within 10 calendar days of the review request.
5. Where the revised answer still falls short, or the designated body misses its 10 days, SEBI may take up a second review. The FAQs give you 15 calendar days to ask for it.

Where no review is sought within a 15-day window, the complaint is disposed of on SCORES. Treat those windows as hard dates.

A worked timeline

Say an investor lodges a SCORES complaint against a broker on 20 October 2026 about shares not transferred to her demat account.

• The broker's ATR is due by 10 November 2026 (21 calendar days after receipt).
• The broker uploads its ATR on 6 November 2026. She has until 21 November 2026 to seek a review.
• She seeks review on 12 November 2026. The stock exchange, as designated body, must give its revised ATR by 22 November 2026.
• If that answer is also unsatisfactory, she asks for SEBI's second review within 15 days of it.

Calendar days include weekends and holidays, so a deadline can fall on a Sunday.

Writing a complaint that gets resolved

A review can only test the answer against what the complaint asked, so the complaint itself decides how far the process can go. A few habits help:

• State the loss or relief in numbers. "Refund ₹38,450 debited as brokerage above the agreed tariff for July to September 2026" is easier to verify than "excess charges".
• Give one issue per complaint. A complaint mixing a delayed payout, a KYC change and a call-centre grievance tends to get a partial answer.
• Point to the document that proves your side, such as the tariff sheet you signed or the transaction statement showing the debit.
• When you seek review, say exactly what the ATR failed to answer instead of repeating the original complaint.

Some grievances have their own rulebook, and it helps to cite it. For a nominee who cannot get securities transmitted, for example, the rights of the nominee versus the legal heirs set out in the note on demat and mutual fund nomination decide what the depository participant can ask for. For a disputed annual maintenance charge, the eligibility conditions of a basic services demat account show whether the lower charge should have applied.

When SCORES does not settle it: SMART ODR

Paragraph 9 of Annexure II of the SCORES circular says that if you are not satisfied after SEBI's review, you should seek remedies through the online dispute resolution mechanism. Civil courts and consumer forums also remain open.

ODR runs on the SMART ODR portal, which the market infrastructure institutions operate jointly. Under the ODR master circular:

• You must first have taken the grievance up with the market participant (paragraph 11), and ODR can start once the complaint is no longer under consideration there or on SCORES (paragraph 13).
• The claim must be within the law of limitation, counted from the date the issue arose, the date of the last transaction or the date of the disputed transaction, whichever is later (paragraph 14).
• There is no fee to register a dispute on the portal (paragraph 28).
• Conciliation comes first. The conciliator must hold the meetings and finish within 21 calendar days of appointment, extendable by 10 days with the parties' consent. The conciliation fee may be borne by the market infrastructure institutions, which recover it from the market participant.
• If conciliation fails, you can take the matter to online arbitration, where the award is due within 30 calendar days of the arbitrator's appointment. Arbitration fees are payable at the start by the party initiating it and by the party against whom it is initiated, on slabs linked to the claim value.

SEBI released a consultation paper on streamlining the ODR framework on 23 July 2026. Among other things, it proposes moving the handling of disputes from ODR institutions to the market infrastructure institutions and shortening the path from SCORES to ODR. Until a final circular is issued, the December 2023 master circular governs. Before filing an ODR claim, check the SEBI circulars page for any newer circular that replaces these steps or the fee slabs.