According to the Depositories Act, 1996, an investor has the option to hold securities either in physical or electronic form. However, SEBI has notified that settlement of trades in listed securities should take place only in the demat mode. Although, trades upto 500 shares can be settled in physical form, physical settlement is virtually not taking place for the apprehension of bad delivery on account of mismatch of signatures, forgery of signatures, fake certificates, etc.

To dematerialise any physical security:
a) open a demat account with a DP.
b) fill in a DRF (Demat Request Form) and submit the same with the physical certificate/s to the DP for dematerialisation.
c) DP defaces and sends the certificates to the Issuer/Registrar who credits an equivalent number of securities in the demat account, maintained by CDSL.
d) For each ISIN, a separate DRF has to be used.

Yes, the ISIN of the security should be mentioned in the DRF, to ensure that the correct security is dematerialised. If, however, the investor does not know the ISIN, he can obtain the same from his DP or from CDSL's website www.cdslindia.com

No. There is no need to fill in a transfer deed. The physical certificates have to be accompanied by a DRF, which can be obtained from the DP.

Can one dematerialise any security held in the form of a certificate?

Only those securities held in the form of certificates can be dematerialised. The securities should be also admitted with CDSL. Securities held in street name (seller's name) cannot be dematerialised.

Yes, part of the BO's holdings can be held in physical form as per the choice of the investor. Though it is advisable to have the entire holdings held in demat mode so that the holdings have liquidity as and when available, it should be noted that part dematerialisation of holdings in a single physical certificate is not allowed.

In such a case, the investor should request the company to have that security admitted with CDSL and once that is done, he can get it dematerialised. It may be mentioned that, on the request of any investor, a company must get that security admitted with the depository/ies.

Dematerialised securities do not have any distinctive or certificate numbers. In demat all securities are fully fungible, which means that any 100 shares of an ISIN are similar to any other 100 shares of that ISIN.

Yes, it can be done through Rematerialisation, which is the term used for converting electronic holdings back into physical certificates. For this, a BO should submit his request in a Remat Request Form (RRF) to his DP. DP will electronically forward the request to the Issuer / Registrar after verifying that there is a sufficient balance of that security in the account. The Issuer / Registrar will send the physical certificates directly to the BO.

CDSL does not levy any charge for dematerialisation of securities. However, DPs collect a dematerialisation charge together with postage / courier charges.