The Mechanism for Redressal of Investor Grievances
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has an Investor Grievances Management Cell (IGMC) at the Headquarters and nodal officers at all field offices of Regional Directors (RD) and Registrars of Companies (ROC) for redressal of investors’ grievances. The investors may take up their grievances with the concerned nodal officers.
Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Corporate Affairs, said that with the implementation of MCA21 e-Governance programme, the investors can also lodge their complaints on-line. The system acknowledges the receipt of complaint online by generating a complaint number which can be used for future follow up of the complaint. All complaints received in the Ministry in physical form are also logged into the MCA21 system.
Shri Khurshid further informed the Lok Sabha that a website namely www.investorhelpline.in has been sponsored and launched in September, 2006 to provide a mechanism for redressal of grievances of investors free of cost. It provides a facility to the investors to lodge their grievance on the website and acts as an intermediary between investors and companies, stock exchanges, and other authorities.
Legal Action against Companies for Non-Redressal of Investor Grievances
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has initiated legal action under various provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 against companies for non-redressal of investors’ grievances during the last three years as under:
| Year | Total Number of companies |
| 2007-2008 | 63 |
| 2008-2009 | 78 |
| 2009-2010 | 58 |
Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Corporate Affairs, said that as informed by NSE and BSE, there are no major complaints pending against listed companies regarding default in payment of dues to small investors. As on March 31, 2010, there were about 12 companies at NSE and 18 companies at BSE which are actively trading and have pending complaints of non-payment of dues. These complaints relate to issues like non-receipt of dividend, non-receipt of refund and interest on debentures, Shri Khurshid informed the House. He further informed the Lok Sabha that there is no provision for a Rehabilitation package of repayment of small investors. However, the Company Law Board (CLB), under section 58A(9) of the Companies Act, 1956 has powers to issue suitable directions for the repayment to the small depositors.
