Authority: Appellate Authority under the RTI Act, Securities and Exchange Board of India

Order Date: September 02, 2026

Case Overview

The appellant, Shamshad Ahmed, filed an RTI application dated June 20, 2026 (received by SEBI on June 24, 2026) seeking information on three specific points. The Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of SEBI responded to the application via a letter dated July 22, 2026. Dissatisfied with this response, the appellant filed a first appeal dated August 03, 2026 (Registration No. SEBIH/R/P/26/00051), which was received by the Office of the Appellate Authority on August 05, 2026.

The appellant's original RTI queries were:

1. Details and documentation of action taken by the M.I.R.S.D. department on his appointment request letter dated February 11, 2026.

2. Information regarding a specific circular: HO/38/13/11(2)2026-MIRSD-POD/1/3750/2026, concerning a special window for investors to transfer and dematerialize physical securities originally purchased or sold before April 1, 2019.

3. Confirmation of the date and time of an appointment with a committee formed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for special cases of physical share transfers.

In its response, the CPIO stated that for query 1, the appellant's complaint regarding share transfer (reference dated February 11, 2026) had been uploaded to the SCORES platform under Complaint Registration No. SEBI/MH26/MUMB/008349/1 and that the complete action history was accessible to the complainant after logging into SCORES, as per SCORES FAQ No. 22. For query 2, the CPIO stated that no information was actually sought. For query 3, the CPIO stated that the request was in the nature of seeking an appointment and thus did not constitute 'information' as defined under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005.

The Appellate Authority concurred with the CPIO's reasoning. It found that the response to query 1 was adequate as the information was available on SCORES. It agreed that query 2 did not seek information. For query 3, it cited a precedent from the Central Information Commission (Mohan Kumar Sharma vs. CPIO, Prime Minister's Office, November 26, 2019) to affirm that a CPIO's role is to provide existing information, not to take action as desired by an applicant.

Final Outcome

The Appellate Authority found no deficiency in the CPIO's response and dismissed the appeal. There was no order for SEBI to provide additional information or take any further action. The matter is closed.

Topics: RTI Appeal, SCORES Platform