IEPF Claim: How to Recover Unclaimed Shares and Dividends in India

• •Dividends declared by a company that remain unpaid or unclaimed for seven years.
• •Equity shares on which dividends have been unclaimed for seven consecutive years (yes, the shares themselves move to IEPF).
• •Matured deposits and debentures that the holder has not claimed.
• •Application money received against issuance of securities and not refunded.
• •Interest accrued on any of the above.
• •Sale proceeds of fractional shares arising from corporate actions.

The shares transferred to IEPF are held by the IEPF Authority but the original beneficial owner can still claim them back. The transfer doesn't extinguish ownership rights, it just moves custody.

• •Original investor: file in your own name with the IEPF claim.
• •Legal heir of deceased holder: requires succession certificate, will probate, or affidavit-based succession evidence.
• •Nominee: where a registered nominee exists in the company records, the claim can be filed by the nominee directly.

• •Login to MCA-21 portal and open Form IEPF-5.
• •Fill in your particulars, the company name, the folio/DP-Client ID where shares were held, and the nature of the claim (dividend, shares, both).
• •Attach the evidentiary documents (PAN, address proof, original share certificates if held in physical form, indemnity bond, advance receipt).
• •Submit the form online with DSC or Aadhaar e-sign.
• •Take a printout of the acknowledgement and dispatch it together with all original supporting documents to the company's registered office.
• •The company verifies the claim and submits a verification report to IEPF Authority within 30 days.
• •IEPF Authority processes the claim and credits the dividend amount to your bank account; shares are credited to your demat account.

• •Self-attested PAN copy.
• •Self-attested address proof (Aadhaar, passport, voter ID, electricity bill).
• •Original share certificates (if shares were held in physical form). If lost, indemnity and lost certificate procedure first.
• •Cancelled cheque of the bank account where dividend amount should be credited.
• •Demat account details (DP ID, Client ID, name) where shares should be credited.
• •Indemnity bond on stamp paper of appropriate value (state-dependent).
• •Advance stamped receipt for the claim amount.
• •For deceased holders: succession certificate, death certificate, legal heir documents, NOC from other heirs.

Claims for deceased holders take significantly longer because the company verification step itself can stretch to 90 days while succession documents are scrutinised.

• •Name on PAN doesn't match name on share certificates or demat account (very common after marriage or name corrections).
• •Folio number provided doesn't match company records, often because of a folio consolidation or share split.
• •Indemnity bond on inadequate stamp paper or with missing notarisation.
• •Advance receipt not signed or wrong amount stated.
• •Demat account details mismatched, blocking credit of shares.
• •For deceased holders, succession documents not in the prescribed format.

• •Deceased holder claims with multiple heirs and complex succession documents.
• •Shares last held more than 20 years ago, with multiple corporate actions (splits, bonuses, mergers) since.
• •Physical share certificates lost, requiring duplicate issuance and indemnity procedures before IEPF claim can begin.