PASS Securities Operations and Risk Management Examination Difficulty: Beginner 2 Questions   5 min read
📌 Chapter 7.1 — INTRODUCTION

Consider a scenario where an investor contacts your helpdesk, furious because they believe a public listed company mismanaged its dividend payout, resulting in a shortfall of five thousand rupees. As a back-office professional, your first instinct might be to direct them to the SEBI Complaints Redress System, or SCORES, to ensure their grievance is officially registered. However, not every frustration an investor carries is eligible for the SCORES platform.

Recognizing the boundaries of SEBI’s digital nervous system is as important as knowing how to file a complaint in the first place.

SCORES is designed specifically for grievances against market intermediaries—such as stockbrokers, depository participants, or registrars—or listed companies concerning their issue or transfer of securities. If a client approaches you with a dispute involving a private commercial contract or a disagreement with a bank that has no nexus to the securities market, SCORES is not the appropriate channel. If you encourage a client to lodge a complaint that falls into these excluded categories, the system will systematically reject the submission, leading to unnecessary delays and further aggravating the investor.

Distinguishing between a valid securities market grievance and an excluded one saves your firm significant administrative burden. For example, complaints that are sub-judice, meaning they are already being heard in a court of law or under arbitration, are barred from the SCORES portal to prevent conflicting rulings. Similarly, anonymous complaints or those that lack sufficient supporting evidence are frequently filtered out.

By maintaining a clear understanding of these exclusionary criteria, you act as a competent gatekeeper, directing clients to the appropriate legal or alternative dispute resolution forums and maintaining the professional integrity of your firm’s grievance redressal chain.

Nuance

⚠️ Nuance
Many candidates mistakenly believe that SCORES is a universal forum for any financial dispute involving a market participant. The common pitfall is failing to realize that SEBI will decline jurisdiction if the matter is already being adjudicated elsewhere or if the complaint is purely a civil/commercial dispute unrelated to securities laws. Always remember that SCORES is a mechanism for regulatory oversight of market conduct, not a substitute for the judiciary in general contract disputes.

Check Your Understanding

Practice Question 1

An investor files a complaint on SCORES against a brokerage firm regarding a trade executed six months ago. The brokerage firm provides evidence that the same matter is currently being heard before a civil court. How will the system process this complaint?

Practice Question 2

Which of the following scenarios would be considered an ’excluded’ category for filing a complaint on the SCORES portal?

This is a companion read for Section 7.1 — INTRODUCTION from PASS Securities Operations and Risk Management Examination by Akhilesh Gururani, available on Amazon Kindle.

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