Special re-lodgement window

From 1 April 2019, SEBI stopped physical transfer of listed shares altogether — shares had to be in demat form to change hands. But some investors had already lodged a transfer deed before that date, only to have it returned for a documentation problem. SEBI let those specific, already-lodged deeds be re-lodged, even after the general ban took effect.

That re-lodgement facility itself had a cut-off. When investors kept missing it, SEBI reopened it once more, as a Special Window.

The sequence of dates:

• 1 April 2019 — transfer of physical shares generally stopped; only re-lodgement of a transfer deed lodged before this date, and returned for deficiency, remained possible.
• 31 March 2021 — the original cut-off date fixed for such re-lodgement. All shares re-lodged for transfer under this route were, in any case, issued only in demat mode.
• 7 July 2025 to 6 January 2026 — a Special Window, open for six months, reopened re-lodgement of transfer deeds for physical securities sold or purchased before 1 April 2019.
• 5 February 2026 to 4 February 2027 — the Special Window was extended for a further one-year period.

Mr. Bhatia lodged a transfer deed for 1,200 shares of Cauvery Textiles Ltd in March 2019, before the deadline, but it was returned for a signature mismatch. He never re-submitted it, and it sat unresolved past the original 31 March 2021 re-lodgement cut-off.

Under the Special Window running 7 July 2025 to 6 January 2026, he can re-lodge the corrected transfer deed, and the shares — as with every re-lodgement under this route — are issued to him only in demat form, never as fresh physical certificates. Had he missed even that window, the further extension to 4 February 2027 gives him one more year to act before the facility lapses again.

Chapter 13, section 13.1. Expect the sequence of dates — 1 April 2019 ban, 31 March 2021 original cut-off, the 7 July 2025 to 6 January 2026 Special Window, and its extension to 4 February 2027 — and the constant across all of them: re-lodged shares are issued only in demat mode.

• The Special Window only helps deeds lodged before 1 April 2019 and returned for deficiency — it does not reopen transfer of physical shares generally.
• Every share re-lodged under this route comes out in demat form, never as a fresh physical certificate.
• Two different extensions exist on two different clocks — the original 31 March 2021 cut-off, and the later Special Window with its own six-month-then-one-year sequence. Do not merge them into a single date.