IEPF notices filed with NSE

The Investor Education and Protection Fund, set up by the Government of India. Under the Companies Act, a dividend that goes unclaimed for seven consecutive years is transferred to it — and so are the shares on which that dividend was unclaimed. The fund holds them until the rightful owner claims them back.

Not because you sold them or did anything wrong. It happens when dividends on a holding go uncollected for seven years in a row — typically because of a changed address, an old bank account that no longer accepts credits, a demat account gone dormant, or shares still held in physical form by a family member who has died. The shares follow the unclaimed dividend.

Under Rule 6 of the IEPF (Accounting, Audit, Transfer and Refund) Rules, the company must write to the shareholder at their registered address and publish a notice in newspapers at least three months before transferring the shares. That published notice is what this page lists.

Claim the unpaid dividend from the company or its registrar before the transfer date stated in the notice. Doing so within the window resets the seven-year clock and the shares are not transferred at all. This is by far the easiest point at which to act — it involves the company’s registrar, not a government claim process.

Through Form IEPF-5, filed online with the IEPF Authority, followed by a physical claim package sent to the company’s nodal officer with the original documents. The company verifies it and recommends the refund to the Authority. It is a genuine process with a real success rate, but it takes months rather than days — which is why the notice window matters so much more.

From NSE’s corporate-announcements feed. Companies file these under the generic subject "Copy of Newspaper Publication", so the substance is in the attachment text rather than the headline; this page reads that text to find them.