Overview

HDFC, which stands for Housing Development Finance Corporation, is a well-known Indian financial company that provides loans to middle and low-income people for them to purchase homes, as well as to builders for them to construct homes. Its purpose is to expand residential housing supply and promote homeownership. The headquarters of the company are in Mumbai, and it has a large distribution network of 427 interconnected branches. HDFC also has branch offices in Singapore, London, and Dubai that provide home finance services. When the Indian banking industry was liberalized in 1994, HDFC was one of the first organizations to get In Principle clearance from the RBI to form a private sector bank.

Provisions of Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF)

Section 124 of the Companies Act of 2013 allows shareholders of a corporation to get paid for unclaimed shares or unpaid dividends deposited by the concerned company to the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority. The authorities has recognized the importance of share recovery by proposing measures in the Union Budget 2023 to assist in the recovery of unclaimed shares and dividends, hence increasing investor safety. To address the issue of unclaimed shares, the government transferred them to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) and developed a procedure for claiming them. The process of recovering shares and associated assets can be complicated and time-consuming, demanding expert assistance for investors to understand the number of procedures.

In 2017, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs published the IEPF regulations. According to the guidelines, any funds that have been in the company's unpaid dividend account for seven years and have had no claimants shall be transferred to the IEPF. The funds with interest for the same time period must receive the amount. The sum, once transferred, may only be recovered by a claimant after making an IEPF application. As a result, investors could now file a claim for lost shares at the IEPF. It made the procedure of getting lost share refunds easier and gave investors a chance to get their long-lost shares back.

Common issues preventing recovery of shares

1. Incorrect or outdated contact information: Shareholders may miss out on important communication regarding their shares if their contact information is incorrect or outdated, making it difficult to recover their shares.
2. Failure to update nomination details: Shareholders may have nominated someone to receive their shares in the case of their death, but if the nomination information is not up to date, it might make it difficult to get the shares back.
3. Non-compliance with regulatory requirements: Failure to meet regulatory criteria may result in the shares being held back, making recovery difficult for shareholders.
4. Physical damage to share certificates: Shareholders may face difficulties in recovering their shares due to physical damage to their share certificates, which were previously held in physical form before the introduction of electronic certificates.
5. Misplacement of share certificates: Shareholders may lose their share certificates, making it difficult for them to recover their shares.
6. Failure to submit transfer deed: Shareholders may face trouble recovering their shares if they fail to submit the transfer deed, which is a legal Document certifying the transfer of shares.
7. Mismatched signatures: Shareholders may face difficulties recovering their shares if there are any discrepancies in the signatures on their Documents, as this could raise doubts about the legitimacy of the transfer.

Services Offered by Enterslice

1.  Recovery of Shares from IEPF

The Recovery of Shares from IEPF intends to claim the unclaimed quantity of shares that have been transferred to IEPF and can be claimed only after completing the MCA and IEPF procedures. Our team can provide

• End-to-end assistance from filing the application to receiving reimbursement from the IEPF
• Including Paper works assistance
• Application form filing, Document submission
• Regular follow-up with the IEPF on the progress of the application.

We make an effort to make it as simple as possible for our clients to seek reimbursement for the unclaimed amount. Enterslice offers a team of skilled individuals that can advise you on the whole process of recovering shares. In this regard, we provide the following services.

      2. Transmission of shares

The process of transferring ownership of shares from the original shareholder to the claimant or legal heir due to death, insolvency, insanity, marriage, or any other statutory reason is known as the transmission of shares. An application from the legal heir requesting the transfer of the shares, a certified copy of the original shareholder's death certificate, a letter of administration, a probate of the will, a certificate of succession, a specimen of the legal heir's or successor's signature, and a self-attested copy of the PAN are all required Documents.

   3. Transfer of shares

The original shareholder willingly transfers the shares to the transferee for consideration. When shares are transferred, the transferor's or the original shareholder's responsibility ceases to exist and is transferred to the transferee. The transfer deed is used to transfer the shares.

4. IEPF Dividend Recovery

A dividend is basically a portion of the profit earned by the company, which compnay distributes in the form of dividend to its shareholders in the form of cash, stock, or any other form determined by the board of directors.

The payment is issued annually, and if it goes unclaimed for 7 years, it is transferred to the IEPF as an unclaimed dividend.

Several investors have failed to claim their assets for the following reasons:

• Improper execution of a share transfer or transmission:
• Incorrect Shareholder Records: Bonus shares that have not been claimed

Our staff offers professional support in assisting our clients in recovering the dividend from IEFP without any legal complications.

Procedure for Recovering HDFC Shares from IEPF 

For the recovery of HDFC shares from IEPF, the following procedure must be performed.

1. Completing the application form

Any person whose shares, unclaimed dividend, matured deposits, matured debentures, application money due for refund, or interest thereon, sale proceeds of fractional shares, redemption proceeds of preference shares, etc. has been transferred to the Fund may claim the shares under proviso to sub-section (6) of section 124 or apply for refund under clause (a) of sub-section (3) of section 125, as the case may be, The Claimant includes the following information in the e-form:

• Particulars of Applicant
• Details of Shares to be claimed
• Particulars of the Company
• Year-wise details of securities/deposits
• Aadhaar Number or Passport/OCI/PIO Card No. (In the case of NRI/ foreigners)
• Details of the amount claimed
• Details of Bank account (Aadhaar linked, in case of the applicant is not NRI/foreigner) in which refund of claim is to be made.

After completing the form, the applicant must send it, along with the Paper works mentioned above, to the Nodal Officer /Registrar of the corporation that owed the money.

2. Submitting the Claim to the Company

The Claim for a refund from the IEPF Authority should be submitted IEPF Nodal Officer/Registrar along with the below mentioned Documents:

• Printout of the filled Form IEPF-5 with the claimant’s signature
• Aadhaar card, proof of entitlement
• Copy of the acknowledgement with the SRN number
• Original share certificates
• Advance stamped receipt with signature of the claimant and witnesses
• Original indemnity bond with the claimant’s signature
• Copy of Demat account’s client master list.
• Passport, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, cancelled cheque

3. Claim submission by company to IEPF authority

Companies have 15 days from the time they receive a claim form from a claimant to put together a verification report and deliver it along with the claimant's supporting Paper works to the IEPF Authorities.

4. Refund to the claimant by the IEPF Authority

Once the IEPF Authority has the verification report from the pertinent business that has approved the claimant's application, it has 60 days to make a decision on the claimant's reimbursement request.

Once the claimant has been granted access to the shares with the appropriate authority's approval, the IEPF Authority will issue a sanction order for the refund claimed. After confirming the claimant's eligibility, the IEPF Authority and the concerned officer will submit a bill to the pay and accounts officer for payment. The claimant will have credit added to their Demat account for the shares or the full amount of their rights.