SCORES-ODR: Streamlining Investor Grievance Resolution

Securities and Exchange Board of India

CIRCULAR
SEBI/HO/OIAE/IGRD/CIR/P/2023/156  September 20, 2023

To,

All Recognized Stock Exchanges (including Commodity Exchanges)
All Depositories
All Listed Companies
All SEBI Registered Intermediaries
Association of Investment Bankers of India 
Association of Mutual Funds in India 
Association of Portfolio Managers in India 
BSE Administration & Supervision Ltd. 
Indian REITs Association
Trustees Association of India

Dear Sir/Madam,

Subject: Redressal  of  investor  grievances  through  the  SEBI  Complaint  Redressal(SCORES) Platform and linking it to Online Dispute Resolution platform.

1.SEBI  Complaint Redressal System  (SCORES)  is  a  centralised  web  based  complaint redressal facilitation platform launched in 2011 vide circular dated June 3, 2011 (bearing reference number CIR/OIAE/2/2011) to provide a facilitative platform for the benefit of the aggrieved   investors,   whose  grievances against(a) listed   company, (b) registered intermediary or(c) market infrastructure institution (“Entities”) remain unresolved. Since then, SEBI  has  revised and  strengthened the  process  of facilitating  the redressal  of grievances  by such Entities.  Currently,  the  process  of  investor  grievances redressal  on SCORES is governed by the Master Circular dated November 07, 2022 on “Processing of investor  complaints  against  listed  companies  in  SEBI  Complaints  Redress  System –SCORES” (bearing reference SEBI/HO/OIAE/IGRD/P/CIR/2022 /0150).

2.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 complaint, SEBI notified the  Securities  and  Exchange  Board  of  India  (Facilitation  of  Grievance  Redressal Mechanism) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023 and amended the regulations as mentioned under ‘Schedule  I’vide  notification  dated  August  16,  2023.Consequently,  it  becomes necessary to revise the extant process for redressal of investors’ grievances against Entities and provide for a mechanism through which Designated Bodies (as specified in ‘Schedule  II’) may  monitor  the  process  of  the  redressal  of  investors’ grievances by Entities. 

For full notification please refer to the attachment