The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has cancelled the certificates of registration of 34 investment advisers with immediate effect, ending their authority to operate as SEBI-registered advisers. According to the official order dated 21 July 2026 and signed by Chief General Manager Soma Majumder, each of the 34 entities and individuals held a certificate of registration as an investment adviser under Section 12(1) of the SEBI Act and the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013, and each had failed to pay the periodic renewal fee required to keep that registration in force. The cancellations took effect immediately, with SEBI serving a copy of the order on BSE Limited in its capacity as the Investment Adviser Administration and Supervisory Body, ensuring the change flows through to the official register.
The order records an administrative default, the non-payment of the five-yearly renewal fee, and does not contain any finding of fraud, mis-selling or investor loss against the named advisers. As reported by Oquilia, SEBI stated the "main purpose" of the cancellation was to prevent misuse of an expired certificate of registration on "unaware investors". Unlike most enforcement matters, this order describes a compliance lapse rather than an alleged scheme to defraud. The mechanism centers on the renewal-fee obligation under Clause 3 of the Second Schedule of the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013, which requires investment advisers to pay fee every five years from the date of grant of certificate of registration. The individual "date from which renewal fees remains unpaid" set out in the order stretches from 2019 and 2020 for the earliest defaults to 2025 and 2026 for the most recent, meaning some registrations had been out of fee for several years before SEBI acted.
SEBI initiated Summary Proceedings under Regulation 30A of the Intermediaries Regulations, 2008, read with Section 12(3) of the SEBI Act, issuing notices dated 2 June 2026 and 4 June 2026 asking each adviser to explain, within 21 days, why its registration should not be cancelled or suspended. According to the order, no adviser filed a written reply to the notices before the cancellations were confirmed, with SEBI concluding that the certificates had "ceased to be in force" and that the procedure prescribed by the Intermediaries Regulations had been followed. An aggrieved adviser may challenge the cancellation before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) under Section 15T of the SEBI Act within the prescribed period, and from there, on a question of law, to the Supreme Court. Because Regulation 30A allows no personal hearing, the tribunal is the first forum at which an adviser can be heard on the merits.
For the advisers themselves, the order does not simply switch off their business and stop there. As reported by Oquilia, SEBI directed each to arrange for the maintenance and preservation of records, the redressal of investor grievances, the transfer of client records, funds or securities, and continuity of service to existing clients, and to comply with the wind-down requirements of Regulation 30A(10). An adviser that later wished to operate again would need to satisfy SEBI's registration requirements afresh rather than simply clear the arrears. The practical message for investors is that an adviser's SEBI registration is not permanent, and it is their job to check that it is current. A registration number printed on a website or a fee invoice proves nothing if the certificate behind it has lapsed, and SEBI said plainly that the cancellations were meant to stop exactly that kind of misuse of an expired certificate on "unaware investors."
The list of 34 cancelled registrations ranges from proprietary firms to companies and includes notable names such as CapitalVia Global Research Ltd, Candyfloss Investment Advisors, Prosper Research and Investment Advisors, TradeCure Financial Research, Niveshshala, Algo Systems and The GRS Solution, alongside a number of individually registered advisers. The full roster of 34 registration numbers appears in the order published on SEBI's enforcement portal in the matter of certain Investment Advisers. SEBI recorded that no adviser filed a written reply to the notices it issued before the cancellations were confirmed, with the order stating that the notices were "duly issued" but that "no replies have been received" from any of the 34 advisers by the date of the order.
