How to Lodge a Complaint in SEBI SCORES: Step-by-Step Process

To lodge a complaint in SEBI SCORES, you register on the portal with your PAN, pick the correct category for the entity you are complaining against, and submit your evidence, after which that entity is required to respond within a fixed deadline.

That is the process in one line. SEBI’s SCORES platform resolved 5,037 investor complaints in June 2026, almost matching the 5,035 fresh complaints filed that same month, and a complaint that is documented properly at the start usually moves within days rather than sitting unanswered.

This page covers the full process: who is allowed to use SCORES, what to prepare before you register, the exact filing steps, what happens once you submit, and why complaints get rejected or closed.

It is written first as a guide you can follow on your own. If you would rather not handle the filing and the follow-up yourself, Aseem Juneja takes on SEBI SCORES complaints on behalf of investors and carries them through to SMART ODR or arbitration where needed, and that service is covered later on this page.

What is SEBI SCORES

If you searched “what is SEBI SCORES,” here is the direct answer. SCORES stands for SEBI Complaints Redress System. It is the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s official investor grievance portal, a single online window where you can raise a complaint against a listed company or a SEBI-registered intermediary and have SEBI track whether that entity responds.

The current version, SCORES 2.0, went live in April 2024 and replaced the earlier scores.gov.in system entirely. The old site was shut for fresh filings from March 28, 2024, so scores.sebi.gov.in is now the only place to lodge a new complaint.

You can reach it through the SCORES website on any browser or through the SEBI SCORES app on your phone, and both connect to the same underlying system

Step by step process to file a complaint in SEBI SCORES

Step 1: Complete SEBI SCORES registration

Go to scores.sebi.gov.in and select investor registration. Enter your name, PAN, and date of birth exactly as they appear on your ID, then provide a verified email address and mobile number.

Step 2: Verify and generate your login

Submit the form and confirm the OTP sent to your email and phone. This generates your unique SEBI SCORES login ID and password, which you will use for this complaint and any future one.

Step 3: Log in and select the correct intermediary category

Log in and choose “lodge a complaint.” Selecting the right category at this stage matters more than most investors realise, because it decides which SEBI department the complaint gets routed to. A complaint against a research analyst filed under “stock broker” gets misrouted and delays resolution. Match the category to the entity: Stock Broker for your broker, Investment Adviser for a registered adviser, Research Analyst for an RA, and so on down the list above.

Step 4: Enter the entity’s name and registration number

Confirm the intermediary’s SEBI registration number against SEBI’s own intermediary search before you submit. You can find it by going to sebi.gov.in, opening Intermediaries, selecting Registered Intermediaries, choosing the category, and searching by name. An incorrect registration number can stop your complaint from reaching the right entity.

Step 5: Write your complaint description and attach evidence

State what happened, when, and what you are asking for, in plain factual language. Attach the documents you gathered earlier: payment proof, communication records, statements, and any promotional material with a promised return figure.

Step 6: Submit and save your acknowledgement number

Once submitted, SCORES generates a unique acknowledgement number. Save it. This is the reference you will use to track your SEBI complaint status going forward.

SEBI SCORES · Filing Process

Six steps from registration to acknowledgement

Each step feeds the next — pick the wrong category in Step 3 and the whole filing gets misrouted. Follow them in order.

1

Complete SEBI SCORES registration

Go to scores.sebi.gov.in and select investor registration. Enter your name, PAN, and date of birth exactly as they appear on your ID, then add a verified email and mobile number.

2

Verify and generate your login

Confirm the OTP sent to your email and phone. This creates your unique SCORES login ID and password, which you’ll reuse for any future complaint.

3

Select the correct intermediary category

Log in and choose “lodge a complaint.” Match the category to the entity — Stock Broker, Investment Adviser, Research Analyst, and so on. A wrong category sends it to the wrong SEBI department.

4

Enter the entity’s name and registration number

Verify the SEBI registration number against SEBI’s own intermediary search first. An incorrect number can stop the complaint from reaching the right entity.

5

Write your complaint and attach evidence

State what happened, when, and what you’re asking for, in plain factual language. Attach payment proof, communication records, statements, and any promotional material with a promised return figure.

6

Submit and save your acknowledgement number

SCORES generates a unique acknowledgement number on submission. Save it — it’s your reference for tracking the complaint’s status going forward.

What to gather beforehand

Before you file

For Registration

• PAN card
• Full name & date of birth, exactly as on your ID
• Active mobile number (for OTP)
• Active email address (for OTP & updates)

For the Complaint

• Payment receipts or subscription confirmations
• Email / WhatsApp exchanges, screenshotted with visible timestamps
• Trading or demat statements covering the dispute period
• Marketing material or call recording with a promised return figure
• Your written complaint to the firm, and its reply (or proof of no reply)

Documents you need before SEBI SCORES registration

A complaint stands or falls on its evidence, not on how it is worded. Before you start your SEBI SCORES registration, gather the following:

For registration itself, you will need your PAN, full name and date of birth exactly as they appear on your official identity documents, and a mobile number and email address that you actually check, since your login credentials and OTPs go there.

For the complaint, put together:

• Payment receipts or subscription confirmations showing what you paid and when
• Email and WhatsApp exchanges with the firm’s staff, saved as screenshots with visible timestamps
• Trading or demat account statements covering the exact period of the dispute
• Any marketing material, brochure, or recorded call where a specific return or profit figure was promised
• Your written complaint to the firm and its reply, or proof that it never replied

A complaint built around a documented promise, such as a WhatsApp message quoting a guaranteed return, carries more weight than a complaint that only describes what happened in your own words. Pair that kind of evidence with your payment proof and account statement and you have a complete factual record.

How to track your SEBI SCORES complaint status

Log in to the portal with your registered credentials and open the complaint using your acknowledgement number, which also works as your complaint reference number for any query about the case.

The dashboard shows the current stage, whether it is awaiting an ATR, in first-level review, or in second-level review, along with the days remaining at each stage.

Complaint tracking works the same way whether you think of it as tracking your SEBI complaint or your SCORES complaint, since both point to the same dashboard.

If you want a full walkthrough of what each status label means, see our separate guide on how to check complaint status and track your SEBI complaint.

Complaints SEBI SCORES accepts

You can file a complaint against any SEBI-registered or SEBI-regulated entity. What that complaint typically covers depends on who it is against.

Against whom can you file a complaint regarding different registered entities? 

• Complaint against a stock broker: unauthorized trades, wrong contract notes, or delayed payout of funds and securities.
• Complaint against an investment advisor: fee overcharging, unsuitable advice, or a fee structure split up to work around SEBI’s annual cap.
• Complaint against a research analyst: guaranteed return promises, tip-selling without proper registration, or advice that does not match what was paid for.
• Complaint against a portfolio manager: unauthorized changes to your investment strategy or disputed performance reporting.
• Complaint against a mutual fund: a wrong NAV applied, a delayed redemption payout, or errors in your folio details.
• Complaint against a listed company: unpaid dividends, a delayed share transfer, or a missing corporate action benefit.
• Complaint against a depository participant: a wrongful debit from your demat account or a delay updating your holdings.
• Complaint against a registrar and share transfer agent: lost certificates, delayed transmission to a legal heir, or KYC record mismatches.
• Complaint against a merchant banker: IPO allotment errors or a delayed refund of application money.
• Complaint against a credit rating agency: a rating issued without proper disclosure or a conflict of interest in how it was assigned.

Match the category exactly to what happened. Filing a complaint against a research analyst under the stock broker category, for instance, sends it to the wrong SEBI department and delays everything that follows.

Complaints SEBI SCORES does not accept

SCORES will not take up a matter against a delisted company, or a company on the Dissemination Board of a stock exchange, except where the complaint concerns securities valuation.

It also excludes disputes already before a court, tribunal, or any other dispute resolution forum, matters that fall under a different regulator’s authority, complaints against a company undergoing insolvency resolution under the IBC, and complaints against companies that have been struck off the Register of Companies or are under liquidation. General market intelligence tips also do not qualify as complaints.

There is also a time limit. A complaint must be lodged within one year from the date the cause of action arose. If a company declared a dividend on a fixed date and had 30 days under the Companies Act to pay it, your one-year window for a SCORES complaint starts counting from the day that 30-day payment period lapsed, not from the original declaration date.

File after the one-year mark and SEBI can reject the complaint outright, so if you have been sitting on a grievance for a while, check this date before doing anything else.

When should you file a SEBI SCORES complaint

Before going to SCORES, raise the issue directly with the entity’s designated compliance or grievance officer, in writing, so there is a dated record of your attempt. If the firm does not respond adequately, or does not respond at all, that is your cue to move to the SCORES portal.

Filing straight away without this step is allowed on paper, but a written attempt at resolution strengthens your case if it later goes to review or arbitration.

Why SEBI SCORES complaints get rejected or closed

A handful of avoidable mistakes account for most rejected or delayed complaints:

Filing against the wrong intermediary category sends the complaint to the wrong department and stalls it. An incorrect or missing SEBI registration number for the entity has the same effect. Filing more than one year after the cause of action arose gets the complaint rejected on limitation grounds.

Filing against an entity that falls outside SCORES, such as a delisted company, an unregistered advisor, or a matter already before a court, gets it dismissed as not maintainable. And a complaint with a vague description and no supporting documents is far more likely to be closed with an unhelpful ATR than one backed by receipts, statements, and dated communication.

What to do if SCORES does not resolve your complaint

If the review process on SCORES still leaves you without a resolution, two further escalation routes exist, and both build on the same evidence you already gathered.

SMART ODR: conciliation

SMART ODR is SEBI’s Online Dispute Resolution platform, accessible at smartodr.in. If a complaint on SCORES is not resolved, or if you file directly on SMART ODR, the matter first goes through pre-conciliation, which is free for both you and the entity. If that does not settle things, a conciliator works with both sides to reach an agreement.

Conciliation itself has a fee, but it is charged only to the market participant, not the investor, whether the conciliation succeeds or not. If you file a dispute on SMART ODR while a complaint is still open on SCORES, the SCORES complaint gets marked as disposed and cannot be pursued separately afterward.

Exchange arbitration through NSE or BSE

If conciliation fails, either party can request arbitration. An independent arbitrator reviews the evidence and passes a binding award. For claims up to Rs 10 lakh, the exchange bears the cost of arbitration on the investor’s behalf, so you do not pay a fee to have the matter heard.

For claims up to Rs 30 lakh, a sole arbitrator is appointed; above that, a three-member tribunal hears the case. The party that wins the award gets its deposited fees refunded, while the losing party’s deposit goes toward the arbitrator’s fee. The registered entity is legally required to comply with the award once it is passed.

The documentation you assembled before filing on SCORES carries forward directly into SMART ODR conciliation and, if needed, arbitration. Getting it right at the start saves you from rebuilding your case at every later stage.

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Real cases: how investors have recovered money through SCORES and arbitration

Case	Against whom	Date of arbitration	Claim amount	Amount recovered
Angel One guaranteed returns	Angel One	2025-12-06	Rs 19,82,893	Rs 2,00,000
Unauthorized trades causing Rs 10.39L loss	Zerodha Commodities Private Limited	2025-04-03	Rs 10,39,000	Rs 10,39,000
Illegal fee splitting and erratic trading calls	Stocksence Research Private Limited	Resolved after SCORES and arbitration escalation	Rs 6,38,000 in losses	Rs 4,31,500
Hidden fees and unauthorized trades exposed	Motilal Oswal	2025-10-23	Rs 7,00,000	Rs 7,00,000
Angel One ordered to refund	Angel One	2026-05-11	Rs 18,00,000	Rs 10,80,000

The Stocksence Research case shows why documentation matters at every stage. The firm had charged an investor Rs 3,00,000 by splitting the payment into advisory and mentorship fees, a structure designed to get around SEBI’s Rs 1,51,000 annual fee cap for registered advisers, and erratic trading calls added a further Rs 3,38,000 in losses.

His initial claim was rejected at conciliation. A formal SEBI SCORES complaint was filed to put the violation on official record, and when SCORES alone did not resolve it, the case was escalated further. The arbitrator ultimately ruled in the investor’s favor once the illegal fee structure was laid out clearly, and he recovered Rs 4,31,500.

How to file a complaint against a stock broker

If your problem is with your stockbroker specifically, not a research analyst, an adviser, or a listed company, you have a few places to take it. Here’s what each one does.

Start with the broker’s compliance officer

Write to the broker’s compliance or grievance officer first, using the email address on your contract note or the broker’s website. Most brokerage agreements require this before you go anywhere else, and it gives you a dated record if the matter escalates. Give them a written window, usually 30 days, to respond.

Filing on SEBI SCORES

If the broker doesn’t respond, or the response doesn’t actually fix anything, you can file on SCORES using the same registration and login steps covered earlier on this page. When you get to the intermediary category, pick Stock Broker specifically. That’s what sends the complaint to SEBI’s stockbroker desk instead of somewhere else. SCORES handles unauthorized trades, wrong contract notes, delayed payout of funds or securities, and excessive brokerage charges.

Filing with NSE or BSE

Every stockbroker in India is a registered trading member of an exchange, so you can also take the complaint straight to NSE or BSE through their investor grievance cells.

NSE handles this through its NICE Plus portal. You register with your PAN, name, email, and mobile number, then log in and use the “Add Complaint” option. BSE has a similar e-Complaint facility under its Investor section. Both exchanges also take complaints through the shared ODR Portal at smartodr.in, which moves a broker dispute straight into mediation if SCORES or the exchange route stalls.

SCORES and the exchange grievance cell run in parallel. Neither one is the “correct” starting point over the other. Either one puts the complaint on record.

Naming the issue correctly

A few problems come up often enough with brokers that it’s worth naming them precisely in your complaint description instead of describing them in general terms.

Churning is when a broker trades your account more often than your strategy calls for, generating brokerage for the firm rather than returns for you. Excessive or undisclosed brokerage charges are fees that don’t match what was disclosed when you opened the account. Unauthorized trades are positions taken without your instruction. Delayed payout is funds or securities not released within SEBI’s mandated timeline.

Naming the issue this way, backed by your account statements, gives whoever reviews the complaint a specific violation to check against rather than a vague grievance.

If this doesn’t resolve it

The same escalation path from earlier applies here too. SMART ODR conciliation comes first, then binding arbitration through NSE or BSE if conciliation fails. Claims up to Rs 10 lakh carry no filing fee at arbitration, which makes this worth pursuing even for smaller broker disputes.

When to get expert help with a SEBI SCORES complaint

SCORES is built for direct investor filing, and plenty of straightforward grievances, like a delayed dividend or a wrongly rejected transfer, get resolved without any outside help.

Where cases tend to stall is when the dispute involves a disguised fee structure, an unauthorized trade pattern that needs to be reconstructed from statements, or a guaranteed-return promise that has to be tied to the exact regulation it violates.

That is where representation by someone who has handled the process repeatedly makes a measurable difference.

Aseem Juneja is a SEBI investor protection expert and arbitration representative who has personally handled complaints at SCORES, SMART ODR conciliation, and NSE and BSE arbitration hearings across India.

He holds an MBA from CEIBS and spent two years as Vice President at Angel One before moving into full-time investor representation in 2024. His team has worked on more than 10,000 scam and grievance cases, recovered over Rs 11 crore for investors, and resolved more than 300 arbitrations, including the cases in the table above.

This is the SEBI complaint assistance investors usually search for once a case is more than a simple dividend delay: someone who will file the SEBI complaint online on your behalf, write the description and attach the right evidence the first time, and stay on the case through every review level instead of leaving it to sit.

If you are looking for a SEBI complaint consultant rather than a do-it-yourself filing, this is the kind of professional help for a SCORES complaint his practice provides, alongside the investor protection services that carry a case into SMART ODR conciliation or arbitration if SCORES alone does not resolve it.

If you are looking for someone to file, follow up, and escalate a SEBI SCORES complaint on your behalf rather than manage the process yourself, you can read more about his background on the about us page or go through his recorded arbitration outcomes on the arbitration results page.