The Sebi-constituted working group on multiple applications, headed by Sebi board member Jayanth R Varma, is going to work out the modalities of bringing net-based applications at its meeting here on Wednesday, regulatory sources told The Financial Express here on Monday.

The sources said that the primary hindrance for going ahead with the idea has been the identification number unique to every application. However, there was a view that such numbering should be done away with at the application stage, as is done now, and giving the number at the application acceptance stage for the purpose. This would also enable filing of applications on photocopied forms. The group, formed a few months ago to look into investors filing multiple applications during IPOs to increase their chances of getting allotments, would consider this means as part of its brief to find ways and means of ensuring that the applications are available at the remotest corners of the country.

As part of its main mandate to look into possibilities of curbing multiplicity of applications by some investors, the group was to evolve the process for identification and rejection/disqualification of such applications and declaring benami applications to be fictitious ones, the sources said.

Though the registrars have the right to reject such applications now, it was not being possible, due to lack of a fool-proof procedure, to do the same. The group was formed when such cases surfaced extensively in the process of IPOs of Polaris Software and Hughes Software Systems last year.

The group has identified that multiple applications are also affecting the proportionate allotment process. The allotment process considers those who have applied for share less than ten times the number of minimum shares per applications as small investors, who would be eligible for higher proportion of allotment. This has prompted some high networth individuals to resort to multiple applications to ensure that they get more shares allotted, the sources added.