Sebi puts in place mechanism to ease e-voting process

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday enabled e-voting to all the demat account holders by way of a single login credential, through their demat accounts and websites of depositories, in an attempt to increase the efficiency of the voting process.

Demat account holders would be able to cast their vote without having to register again with the e-voting service providers (ESPs), thereby, not only facilitating seamless authentication but also enhancing ease and convenience of participating in e-voting process. The regulator said the proposed e-voting process would be implemented in a phased manner.

At present, there are multiple ESPs providing e-voting facility to listed entities in India. This necessitates registration on various ESPs and maintenance of multiple user IDs and passwords by the shareholders.

Sebi rules mandate listed entities to provide remote e-voting facility to its shareholders, in respect of all shareholders’ resolutions.

“However, it has been observed that the participation by the public non-institutional shareholders/retail shareholders is at a negligible level,” Sebi said.

The regulator said the proposed process for e-voting would be implemented within six months of the date of the circular.