Quick Summary
Not every market grievance can go to arbitration, and filing in the wrong forum costs you months. Eight types of disputes qualify: unauthorised trades, misuse of funds or securities, excess brokerage, contract note mismatches, margin disputes, account freezing, rule violations by registered intermediaries, and account handling with profit sharing. Criminal matters and disputes with unregistered entities do not qualify and go to the police or SEBI instead. Since SEBI’s online dispute resolution framework arrived, even PMS, AIF, and mutual fund disputes have a route. This page gives you the full list, both sides.
Something has gone wrong with your broker or advisor, and someone mentioned arbitration.
Before you spend a single day on it, one question decides everything: does your dispute even qualify?
File a qualifying dispute, and you step onto the route of arbitration in share market that ends in a binding award.
File a non-qualifying one, and you lose months before being told to start over elsewhere.
This page sorts your situation into the right column in five minutes.
Which Matters Can Be Referred to Arbitration in India?
Here is the simple test before anything else: did someone registered, your broker or your advisor, break a rule, and did that cost you money?
If yes, you likely have a case. If you simply lost money on a trade you agreed to, you do not.
That dividing line is no accident.
The whole purpose of arbitration is to fix rule-breaking by registered entities, not to refund the market risk you accepted.
Now think about what actually happened to you.
Maybe trades showed up in your account that you never placed. Maybe your own shares or payout got stuck with the broker.
Maybe the charges kept growing beyond what was agreed, or the statements never matched your trades. Maybe your shares got sold off in a margin call nobody warned you about, or the account just got frozen one day.
Or maybe someone offered to run your account and share profits, and it ended in losses.
Whatever happened to you is almost certainly one of the eight groups below.
Find the one that sounds like your story, and check its examples to confirm:
1. Trades You Never Authorised
- Unauthorised trades or order placement
- Trades executed without your consent
- Stop loss orders that were never executed
- Trades executed at wrong prices
2. Your Funds or Shares Misused
- Broker using your securities for its own purposes
- Delay or refusal in returning your funds or shares
- Pledging or transferring your holdings without authority
3. Charged More Than Agreed
- Brokerage above the agreed rate
- Unjustified transaction fees, taxes, or penalties
- Disputed AMC or demat charges
4. Contract Notes That Do Not Match
- Mismatch between contract notes and actual trades
- Wrong entries in your ledger
- Forged or manipulated statements
5. Margin Calls and Forced Square Offs
- Disputed margin calls or forced square offs
- Unclear exposure or margin calculations
- Your shares sold without proper notice
6. Account Frozen Without Explanation
- Account frozen without due notice
- Trades blocked without justification
- Trading rights suspended without reason
7. SEBI and Exchange Rules Broken
- KYC norm violations
- Risk in derivatives never disclosed to you
- Breach of SEBI or exchange investor protection circulars
8. Account Handling and Profit Sharing
- A broker, sub broker, or registered advisor operating your account
- A registered entity offering you profit sharing arrangements
- An advisor charging beyond permitted fees
This last group catches many investors by surprise, because the arrangement felt friendly until the losses came.
How these arrangements work and why they qualify is covered on our page on trading account handling with profit sharing.
Found your situation in the list and now wondering if your documents are enough to act on it?
We will check your case against the exact category it falls in, tell you honestly if it qualifies, and file it in the right forum the first time.
What Matters Cannot Be Referred to Arbitration?
Just as important as knowing what qualifies is knowing what does not, because the wrong forum wastes the months your case timeline cannot spare.
The disputes below fall outside exchange arbitration, each for its own reason, and each has its own correct route:
| Non-Arbitrable Matter | Why Not | Where to Go Instead |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal matters like forgery and cheating | Crimes need investigation and prosecution, not a civil award | Police, Economic Offences Wing |
| Disputes with unregistered or unregulated entities | Arbitration binds only registered market participants | SEBI, Cyber Cell, Police |
| Telegram tip sellers and fake advisory apps | No registration means no exchange jurisdiction | Cyber Cell, Police complaint |
| Matters already decided by a court or regulator | A concluded matter cannot be reopened here | Appeal in the original forum |
One important update many older guides still get wrong: disputes with PMS providers, AIFs, and mutual funds are no longer outside the system.
Since SEBI’s online dispute resolution framework, these disputes travel through the SMART ODR India route, with conciliation and arbitration available the same way.
So the real dividing line today is simpler than it used to be: a registered entity means you have a route. An unregistered entity means you go to the police and SEBI, not to arbitration.
Where Does Your Qualifying Dispute Go Next?
A qualifying dispute does not jump straight to an arbitrator.
It first travels through your complaint to the intermediary, the exchange’s grievance stage, and conciliation, with arbitration as the final stop when everything else fails.
For broker disputes on the NSE side, the route begins with the exchange’s own complaint process, and our guide on how to file complaint in NSE covers every stage of it with the steps and contacts.
Once the case reaches arbitration, the proceedings run under a defined legal framework, and most matters conclude within four to six months.
The machinery behind those proceedings, from the arbitrator’s appointment to the hearing rules, sits on our page on the steps of arbitration proceedings in India.
Conclusion
Five minutes on this page can save you five months in the wrong forum.
If your dispute involves a registered intermediary breaking a rule that cost you money, it belongs in arbitration, and the route ends in a binding award.
If it involves crime or an unregistered entity, arbitration was never your route, and the police and SEBI are.
Check the list, name your category, and file where your case actually belongs.
Report. Recover. Stay Fraud Free.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Exchange arbitration binds only registered market participants. For unregistered entities, file with the police and the Cyber Cell, and report to SEBI so the entity goes on record. Arbitration has no jurisdiction over them.
Yes. Under SEBI's online dispute resolution framework, disputes with PMS providers, AIFs, and mutual funds travel through the same conciliation and arbitration route as broker disputes. Older guides listing them as excluded are out of date.
The two run separately. The money claim against the registered intermediary can go to arbitration, while the criminal side, like forgery, goes to the police. Filing one does not block the other, and many strong cases run both.
A loss alone is not a claim. What makes it arbitrable is a rule broken: advice from someone unregistered for it, guaranteed returns promised, or your account operated without authority. The violation, not the loss, decides eligibility.
Timelines run from when your dispute arose and when conciliation failed, and delay both weakens claims and inflates fees. Treat the clock as short, gather your documents early, and file as soon as the earlier stages conclude.
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