When should an investor contact the stock exchange?

You’d contact the exchange (NSE or BSE) directly, rather than just the broker or SEBI, in specific situations: when a dispute or complaint against the broker hasn’t been resolved through the broker’s own channel or SEBI SCORES within a reasonable timeframe, or when the issue relates specifically to exchange-level matters like trade execution disputes, settlement issues, or a broker’s default (where the broker itself becomes unable to meet its obligations to clients). Exchanges maintain their own investor grievance and arbitration mechanisms, partly because they’re the ones that directly oversee broker conduct at the trading and settlement level, separate from SEBI’s broader regulatory oversight. In cases of broker default specifically, the exchange’s Investor Protection Fund becomes relevant, since it exists to compensate eligible investor claims up to certain limits when a broker fails. For most everyday service issues, brokerage disputes, or account access problems, you’d exhaust the broker’s own grievance process and SEBI SCORES first, reserving direct exchange contact for the more serious or structurally different categories of issues, like settlement disputes or broker default.