Can I recover my lost MRF share certificate?

Answer: This happens with a lot of investors. If you have lost your physical share certificate of MRF Ltd, you need to write to the company by providing a copy of the share certificate and your KYC documents like PAN, Aadhar and Bank details asking for the status and procedure for duplicate issue of shares. Generally, Registrar & Transfer Agent (RTA) is the communication point for shareholders’ queries, but in the case of MRF, the process is being handled by them internally rather than RTA. Over the period, MRF would have also issued bonus shares on your existing holding. Thus you would also be eligible for those corporate benefits. Once the company verifies your documents and KYC, the company will provide you with the procedure of duplicate issues of shares and the current status of your holding as well.

Duplicate issue of shares by way of getting a Letter of Confirmation from the company involves the filing of the police report for a lost share certificate, giving an advertisement in the newspaper. There are certain other formalities such as new address submission, signature verification etc to be completed and submitted to the company. Further, since your address was changed several times, you would also have missed the dividends declared by the company every year.

If your dividend also remained unclaimed for more than seven years, your shares and dividend would also have transferred to IEPF (Investor Education and Protection Fund). IEPF is a fund managed by the government, whereby it acts as the custodian of unclaimed shares and dividends. After the establishment of your claim with the company, you will also be required to file the claim with IEPF to claim your shares back. Please note that in your case after doing all the formalities, either you will get a Letter of confirmation instead of a new duplicate physical certificate which can be submitted for demat. If the shares are in IEPF, then the same will directly be credited based on the entitlement letter from the company.

Vikash Jain is co-founder at Share Samadhan Limited