Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) vide its Circular no. SEBI/HO/OIAE/OIAE_IAD-1/P/CIR/2023/131 dated July 31, 2023 (Updated as on December 28, 2023) has announced the introduction of a common Online Dispute Resolution Portal (“ODR Portal”) which harnesses online conciliation and online arbitration for resolution of disputes arising between investors and listed companies or specified intermediaries/regulated entities in the securities market.

As per the said Circular, initially an Investor shall first take up their grievance against the Company, by lodging a complaint directly with the concerned Company / RTA.

If the said grievance is not redressed satisfactorily, the Investor may escalate the said grievance through the SEBI Complaints Redress System (“SCORES”) Portal, in accordance with the process defined, and can be accessed at https://scores.sebi.gov.in/

After exhausting all the available options for resolution of the grievance, if the Investor is still not satisfied with the outcome, they can initiate Dispute Resolution through the ODR Portal.

The ODR Portal named “SMART ODR” can be accessed through the URL: https://smartodr.in/login.

For further details, Investors can click here to refer the said Circulars, hosted on the Company’s website.

Master Circulars for Online Dispute Resolution (Updated as on December 28, 2023) can be accessed here.