SEBI Censures Alankit Assignments, Declines One-Year Client Ban

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has censured Alankit Assignments Limited, a registrar to an issue and share transfer agent (RTA), for compliance lapses found in an inspection of its RTA work. The SEBI order in the matter of Alankit Assignments Limited dated 12 August 2026 was passed under Section 12(3) of the SEBI Act, 1992 read with Regulation 27 of the SEBI (Intermediaries) Regulations, 2008. The designated authority (DA) had recommended that the company also be barred from taking new clients for one year. The final measure, as reported by Moneylife, was a regulatory censure, without the one-year prohibition.

How the case reached this stage

Alankit Assignments holds SEBI registration No. INR000002532 as an RTA. SEBI inspected its records for the period 1 April 2021 to 19 September 2022. The DA's enquiry report, dated 28 February 2025, recommended two measures under the Intermediaries Regulations:

• a prohibition on taking up new clients or assignments as an RTA for one year, under Regulation 26(1)(iv); and
• a regulatory censure under Regulation 26(1)(vii).

A show cause notice followed on 3 April 2025, and the company made its post-hearing submissions on 18 December 2025. The full text of the SEBI order runs through each charge and records whether it was established.

Charges that were established

• NISM certification: 39 persons handling RTA work did not hold the required NISM certification and 10 did not hold a valid one. SEBI accepted as mitigation that corrective steps were taken and that a 2024 inspection found no adverse finding on this point.
• Signature cards: signature cards were absent in 46% of folios, over 90% were missing for 67 companies and all were missing for 40 companies. The order noted that this is an industry-wide problem acknowledged by SEBI, that responsibility is shared with listed companies, and that later inspections showed improvement.
• Duplicate share certificates: 123 requests were processed late. In 88 of them the delay was within 10 days; 35 were delayed beyond 10 days.
• Demat requests: 54 requests were processed after the 15-day period, each by one or two days. The order treated these as technical lapses.
• Transfers: 7 of 14 re-lodged transfer requests were processed late, and in one folio shares were transferred without the original transfer deed and transferor signature, which the order held to be a failure of due diligence.
• Physical transfers after 1 April 2019: 8 transfers of physical shares were processed after the cut-off under Regulation 40(1) of the SEBI (LODR) Regulations. Six involved shares held by nominees of the President of India, which the order found distinguishable but not exempt.

Charges that were not established

Several allegations failed. The charge that Alankit did not sign tripartite agreements with seven companies was not established, since the order held that the primary responsibility lies with the listed entity. Due diligence charges on individual duplicate-share folios, a missing ISR-4 transmission form, address updates in five folios and the handling of unclaimed shares under Regulation 39(4) of LODR were also not established. A wrongly uploaded signature in one folio was treated as an isolated human error corrected at once.

Why the outcome matters

A censure is a formal adverse finding, but it does not stop the RTA's business. A one-year bar on new clients would have prevented Alankit from taking up new issuer mandates for that period. The findings show that many charges fell away, several established lapses involved short delays, and SEBI gave weight to corrective action and to the improvement seen in later inspections.

For listed companies that use an RTA, the order is a reminder that SEBI treats signature cards, time limits on duplicate certificates and demat requests, and the ban on physical transfers as the RTA's own obligations, even where the issuer shares responsibility. Compliance officers can ask their RTA for its latest inspection status and for data on turnaround times for investor service requests. For shareholders, the order confirms that SEBI examines individual folio-level complaints, such as transfers made without proper documents, in its inspections of RTAs.

Updated on 27 September 2026: Added the SEBI order of 12 August 2026 with its legal basis, the inspection period, the DA's recommendation, and the charges that were and were not established.