ownership
Custody lives at the depository
The rule
Your broker's app is a view; your real title to the shares sits in the depository record, in your own name.
Where it flips
The app view feels like ownership because it updates instantly and looks official. Where it misleads: you treat one broker login as full proof of title. The fix: confirm the holding in the depository CAS in your own name, and keep the nominee updated.
The screen in a broker app is a convenient window, not the deed. Your shares are held in your own name at the depository (CDSL or NSDL), and the CAS statement is the record that proves it. So the reader treats the app as a starting clue and confirms the holding, the nominee, and the depository's own alerts against the CAS.
A worked example
A broker app shows 100 shares. The reader opens the monthly CAS from the depository and sees the same 100 held as beneficial owner in their own name. That match, not the app screen, is the real proof of ownership.
How to spot it
- ·holding shown only inside a broker app
- ·no CAS statement checked from CDSL or NSDL
- ·depository SMS or email alerts left unread
- ·nominee status unknown
Beneficial-owner principle · How Indian custody works (CDSL/NSDL)