The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on September 20, 2023, issued a circular regarding the redressal of investor grievances through the SEBI Complaint Redressal (SCORES) Platform and linking it to the Online Dispute Resolution platform.
The following has been stated: -
•In order to strengthen the existing investor grievance handling mechanism through SCORES by making the entire redressal process of grievances in the securities market comprehensive by providing a solution that makes the process more efficient by reducing
timelines and by introducing auto-routing and auto-escalation of complaints, SEBI notified the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Facilitation of Grievance Redressal Mechanism) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023, and amended the regulations.
•The revised framework for handling of complaints received through the SCORES platform for Entities and for monitoring the complaints by designated bodies is specified in Annexure I of the circular.
•The other general provisions applicable to all Entities Concerning the SCORES portal are in Annexure II.
•Notwithstanding anything contained in this circular or any other circular, the Entities shall submit the Action Taken Report ("ATR") to SEBI within 21 calendar days from the date of receipt of the complaint.
The provisions of this circular related to the flow of processing of investor grievances by Entities and the framework for monitoring and handling of investor complaints by the Designated Bodies shall come into force with effect from December 04, 2023.
•The designated bodies referred to in Schedule II ("Designated Bodies") may apply for SCORES Authentication and/or for Application Programming Interface (API) integration as per Annexure 1 within such period so as to ensure that Designated Bodies can comply with provisions of this circular by December 04, 2023, and onwards.
•This Circular shall rescind the Master Circular SEBI/HO/OIAE/IGRD/P/CIR/2022/0150 dated November 07, 2022, with effect from December 04, 2023.
The detailed circular is given in the document attached below.
[Circular No. SEBI/HO/OIAE/IGRD/CIR/P/2023/156]
