What Is a Delivery Instruction Slip (DIS)?

A delivery instruction slip is how securities leave a demat account. It is the debit instruction: the beneficial owner signs it, the depository participant executes it, and the shares move. Because it is the one document that can empty an account, SEBI wrapped it in serial number controls, scanning requirements and, for the electronic version, a two factor check. This page sets out what a delivery instruction slip must contain, the checks that run on it, and how the electronic route differs.

What must a delivery instruction slip contain?

Paragraph 1.13 of the Master Circular for Depositories standardises the slip itself. Depositories must ensure the DIS is uniform across all DPs in its serial numbering, so system level checks are possible, and in its layout and size, so it can be scanned and retrieved.

Each slip must bear:

• a pre-printed serial number, unique within the DP ID
• the DP ID
• a pre-printed or pre-stamped beneficial owner ID

Two prohibitions sit alongside that. The same DIS shall not be used for both market and off-market instructions. And a single DIS shall not be used for transactions with multiple execution dates.

What checks run on a DIS before shares move?

The controls are built around the serial number, which is why the pre-printing matters.

1. On issue. When a DP hands a booklet or loose slips to a holder, it must immediately make the serial number, the beneficial owner ID and the date of issuance available electronically to the depository.
2. On execution. The DP enters the serial number into the depository system for validation.
3. At the depository. The depository validates the serial number and must ensure that no instruction accompanied by a used or unissued DIS is processed.
4. After execution. Every DIS executed during a day, with all annexures and computer printouts, must be scanned by the end of the next working day, with audit trails for any changes and checks to prevent unauthorised changes to the scanned images.

Depositories then use the archived scanned images for off-site inspection. When a new booklet is issued, slips from the old booklet stop being valid, though a DP may accept them during a one month transit period.

How does an electronic DIS work?

The scanning and serial number regime applies to paper. For instructions received electronically in a manner approved by the depository, those provisions do not apply, and a different control set does.

Where a DP accepts delivery instructions through its own online portal, the depositories must ensure investor authentication through a password or TPIN together with an OTP, both generated at the depository's end, for each transaction.

Where instructions come through an intermediary's online portal, SEBI's risk containment conditions are tighter. The eDIS facility has to be true to its label: it must capture everything a physical DIS captures, including the settlement number and the actual quantity to be transferred for on-market transfers, and it must be an instruction for actual transfer against a single settlement number or date. A pre-trade mandate, where a depository offers one, must authorise the transfer of specific securities for on-market settlement only, must pertain to a single settlement number or date, and must be authorised by the client for each mandate through an OTP and a PIN or password, both generated at the depository's end.

Where the DIS sits next to a DDPI and a block

A DIS is the client acting. A DDPI is the broker acting on a narrow, pre-signed authority against a matched settlement obligation. The block mechanism is a third route where nothing leaves the account at all until pay-in, and the block itself can be created by the client through the depository's online system, by eDIS mandate, or by the DP against a physical DIS.

One rule does not bend across the three. Off-market transfers, meaning transfers that are not settling an exchange trade, are permitted only by a physical DIS signed by the client or by an eDIS, and the depositories must obtain the client's consent through an OTP. A DDPI does not cover them.

Why the paper trail is worth understanding

The DIS controls exist because unauthorised transfers out of a demat account were the failure mode they were written against. SEBI requires the grievance redressal mechanism to be printed on the delivery instruction form book itself, and "delay in issuance or reissuance of a DIS booklet" is a listed investor-grievance category in the depositories complaint-type matrix. A power of attorney also cannot be used to close off the client's own route: paragraph 36.9.1.5 of the Master Circular for Stock Brokers states that a PoA shall not facilitate the broker to prohibit issue of delivery instruction slips to the beneficial owner.

Two supply-side limits are worth knowing before you rely on loose slips. A depository participant shall not issue more than 10 loose DIS to one account holder in a financial year, and a loose DIS can be issued only if the holder comes in person and signs it in the presence of an authorised DP official. A new booklet is issued only against the requisition slip from the previous one. If an unexplained debit appears on your holding statement, the serial number of the slip that caused it is a record the depository is required to hold.

So a delivery instruction slip is a small form with a large amount of infrastructure behind it. Keep the booklet secure, check that market and off-market instructions are on separate slips, and expect an OTP on anything done electronically.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each one dated and linked to its source. What any disclosure means for your money is your call to make. Not investment advice.