How to reclaim your rejected physical shares before SEBI’s January 6, 2026, deadline

As of January 6, 2026, SEBI’s special six-month window for re-lodgement of physical share transfer deeds will close. In its July 2, 2025, circular, SEBI reminded investors that physical share transfers were discontinued from April 1, 2019. Although investors were previously allowed to resubmit transfer deeds until March 31, 2021, many missed that deadline.

"Thus, to facilitate ease of investing for investors and to secure the rights of investors in the securities which were purchased by them, it has been decided to open a special window only for re-lodgement of transfer deeds, which were lodged before the deadline of April 01, 2019, and rejected/returned/not attended to due to deficiency in the documents/process/or otherwise, for a period of six months from July 07, 2025, till January 06, 2026," said the market regulator.

How to reclaim your rejected physical shares

• Shareholders must submit corrected transfer deeds to their company’s Registrar & Share Transfer Agent (RTA) by January 6, 2026.

• Upon verification, these shares will be transferred exclusively in dematerialised (demat) form, ensuring secure and updated ownership records.

"Investors are advised to submit their requests to the Company’s Registrar and Share Transfer Agent (RTA) by January 6, 2026," Canara Bank said on its official website.

⦁ The claim process is initiated by filing an online application in Form IEPF-5.

⦁ You will be redirected to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) portal.

⦁ Log in with your MCA credentials.

⦁ In case you don't have an account, you will need to register as a new user.

⦁ After successfully filling and uploading the form, an online acknowledgement with a Service Request Number (SRN) will be generated.

After the online submission, you must send a set of physical documents to the company's Nodal Officer. This step is for the company to verify your claim.

Upon receiving the physical documents, the company's Nodal Officer will verify your claim. They will then submit an online verification report to the IEPF Authority, confirming that your claim is legitimate.

Once the IEPF Authority receives the verification report from the company, it will initiate the refund process. The shares will be transferred to your Demat account.

It’s important to note that shares linked to unpaid dividends for seven consecutive years are mandatorily transferred to IEPF by companies, ensuring unclaimed assets are protected and can be reclaimed by rightful owners.