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Bad delivery

Bad delivery is largely obsolete historical vernacular for paper securities or documents that failed settlement validation.

In the paper-certificate era, signature mismatches and damaged shares were common bad-delivery causes.

Dematerialisation has made classic bad delivery rare in everyday Indian equity trading.

Modern settlement fails are handled as short delivery and auction settlement.

The term still appears in older rulebooks and market vernacular.

Part of the Market Pulse Term of the Day series — factual market vocabulary, not investment advice.