REVISED REGULATION MADE BY SEBI REGARDING PERIOD OF MAINTENANCE OF DOCUMENTS 

The Regulator of securities and commodity market SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) in its circular has said that Depositories and Depository Participants are required to maintain the records and preserve documents for a period of at least 8 years. In October 2019, Securities and Exchange Board of India had issued a corrigendum to its circular where it was mentioned that Depositories and Depository Participants are required to preserve the record and documents for a period of 5 years. But now in the fresh circular, the regulator has asked to maintain such records for 8 years. It is also stated in the circular that those copies which have been taken by the enforcement department during the course of their inquiry have to be preserved in original form which can be either in electronic form or physical form. Two Depositories functioning in India are National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL). These Depositories are institutions which are similar to the Central Bank. Here securities of shareholders are held in electronic form at the request of shareholders through a medium of Depository Participant (DP).In a Depository System, Depository Participant acts as an agent of the investor. Depository and Depository Participants play a crucial role in the securities market. Depository acts as a Central Bank whereas Depository Participant (DP) acts as a channel between shareholders and the listed companies which issue shares. Investors play a prominent role in the securities market and protecting their interest becomes the most important aspect. These Depositories allow the investors to deposit securities by opening an account in electronic form and they get their revenue from transactions, account maintaining, annual fees and settlement charges which are paid by Depository Participants and also the corporate charges which are paid by the companies whose shares are listed on the securities market.