Why old share certificates need attention
Many Indian families still have paper share certificates, bought in the 1980s and 1990s, inherited, or simply forgotten in a cupboard. A certificate is still proof of ownership. But to sell the shares, gift them or pass them on, they now have to be in demat form, and registrars issue the results of service requests only for credit to a demat account.
The longer certificates sit untouched, the harder they become to deal with. Companies merge or change names, registrars change, and signatures on record grow decades out of date.
How dematerialisation works
- Open a demat account in exactly the same name or names, in the same order, as on the certificates.
- Check that the folio's PAN, address, signature and bank details are updated with the company's registrar and transfer agent (RTA).
- Fill in a Dematerialisation Request Form, mark each certificate "Surrendered for Dematerialisation", and hand them to your DP.
- The DP sends the request electronically to the depository and the physical certificates to the RTA.
- The RTA checks the certificates against its records and confirms, and the shares appear in your demat account.
If joint holders' names on the certificate are in a different order from your demat account, a transposition request comes first.
Transmission, transfers and other requests
| Request | When it's needed |
|---|---|
| Transmission | A holder has died and shares move to the nominee, surviving joint holder or legal heirs |
| Transposition | Joint holders' names are in a different order from the demat account |
| Inter-depository transfer | Moving holdings between NSDL and CDSL accounts |
| Rematerialisation | Converting demat holdings back to paper, rarely useful today |
| Duplicate issue | Certificates are lost, stolen or damaged |
Where a joint holder survives, transmission is the simplest case: the deceased holder's name is deleted on submission of the death certificate, and the holding continues with the survivor.
What usually slows things down
- The name on the certificate differs from the PAN, through initials, a maiden name or a spelling error
- The specimen signature with the registrar is decades old and no longer matches
- The company has merged, changed its name or been delisted, so the shares have to be traced first
- Dividends have gone unclaimed and the shares have moved to IEPF, which needs a separate claim
Our team pulls the registrar records, fixes mismatches first and tracks each request until the shares are credited to your demat account. If shares have already reached IEPF, we can help with that claim too.
