What Is SCORES 2.0? SEBI's Complaint Redressal System

SCORES 2.0 is the current working version of SEBI Complaint Redressal System, the centralised platform where an investor lodges a complaint against a listed company or a SEBI registered intermediary. SCORES itself dates to 2011. What changed is the machinery around it: every complaint is auto-routed, a Designated Body watches the clock, and the resolution window is a fixed 21 calendar days. This guide explains how SCORES 2.0 works and what each deadline means.

How does a complaint move through SCORES 2.0?

A complaint lodged on SCORES is automatically forwarded to the entity complained against, with a copy marked to the relevant Designated Body. The entity must resolve it and submit an Action Taken Report on SCORES within 21 calendar days of receipt, and that report routes back to the complainant automatically.

If the complainant is satisfied, or does not ask for a review, the complaint is disposed on SCORES. If not, the escalation ladder has two rungs.

What are the two levels of review?

First review. The complainant may request a review within 15 calendar days from the date of the Action Taken Report. The Designated Body also takes cognizance on its own if the entity missed the 21 day window entirely, which means a silent entity gets escalated without the investor doing anything. The Designated Body must put the revised report to the complainant on SCORES within 10 calendar days of the review being sought.

Second review. If the complainant is still dissatisfied, a second review may be sought within 15 calendar days from the date the Designated Body submitted its report. The second review sits with SEBI.

Who is the Designated Body for each kind of entity?

Schedule II of the September 2023 circular assigns every class of regulated entity to a body that monitors redressal and can issue advisories and caution letters, or refer the matter to SEBI for enforcement.

For a shareholder of a listed company, the practical read is that the exchange is the escalation authority, the same institution that receives the company's quarterly filings.

Is there a deadline for filing in the first place?

Yes, and it catches people. A complaint must be lodged on SCORES within one year from the date the cause of action occurred, and only after the investor has first approached the entity directly and either had the complaint rejected, received no communication, or was not satisfied with the reply. SEBI may reject a complaint filed beyond that limitation period.

Where does SCORES stop and arbitration begin?

SCORES is a grievance redressal facility, not a forum that awards money. When the complaint is really a dispute over an amount, the route after SCORES is the ODR portal, which runs online conciliation and then online arbitration. SEBI's ODR circular expressly contemplates an investor exhausting SCORES first, then initiating dispute resolution.

What SCORES 2.0 does not do

It does not adjudicate. It does not compensate. And a complaint marked resolved on SCORES means the entity filed a report the complainant did not contest within the review window, which is a weaker statement than the dispute being settled on the merits. Read the Action Taken Report, not the status label.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each one dated and linked back to its source. Whether a company's complaint record changes your view of it is your call to make. Not investment advice.