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The Act separates the reporting duty between the Committee and the employer, and gives each a different addressee. Reading the two sections side by side is the quickest way to see what most compliance calendars have collapsed into a single line item.
The Internal Committee or Local Committee shall, in each calendar year, prepare an annual report in such form and at such time as may be prescribed, and submit it to the employer and the District Officer. Under Section 21(2) the District Officer forwards a brief report on the annual reports received to the State Government.
The employer shall include the number of cases filed, if any, and their disposal in the annual report of the organisation, or, where no such report is required to be prepared, intimate the number of cases to the District Officer. Section 26(1)(b) names Section 22 expressly among the failures that attract a penalty.
The distinction matters commercially because the two land in different places. The Committee's report goes outward, to a district authority and onward to the State Government. The employer's disclosure goes into the organisation's own annual report, where investors, auditors and counterparties read it. An organisation with no statutory annual report of its own does not escape the duty; it intimates the number to the District Officer instead.
The Internal Committee or the Local Committee, as the case may be, shall in each calendar year prepare, in such form and at such time as may be prescribed, an annual report and submit the same to the employer and the District Officer.
Section 21(1), POSH Act 2013“In each calendar year” means January to December. Indian compliance calendars are built around the April–March financial year, and the POSH report is routinely absorbed into that rhythm without anyone testing the wording. The result is a report that covers the wrong twelve months, and in organisations that have been doing it this way for several years, a set of reports none of which corresponds to a statutory period.
The reconciliation is not difficult once it is recognised. The Committee closes its report on the calendar year. The employer's Section 22 disclosure then appears in the organisation's annual report on the financial year, drawing on figures that are already settled. Practically, that means the Committee's work has to be finished before the secretarial cycle needs the numbers, not alongside it.
The form and the time of submission are, in the words of Section 21(1), “as may be prescribed” — that is, by the rules made by the Central Government under Section 29, which apply uniformly across India. Which committee reports for which unit follows the same unit map as the committees themselves, described on the POSH compliance page.
Section 21(1) requires the report "in each calendar year". Secretarial and finance calendars run April to March, and the POSH report is quietly folded into that cycle. The two do not align, and a report prepared for a financial year is not the report the section asks for.
Section 21 places a duty on the Committee to report to the employer and the District Officer. Section 22 places a separate duty on the employer to disclose the number of cases and their disposal in the organisation’s annual report, or to intimate the number to the District Officer where no such report is prepared. Section 26(1)(b) names Section 22 expressly.
Section 21(1) is unqualified — the Committee prepares an annual report in each calendar year. The words "if any" in Section 22 govern the number of cases, not the existence of the duty. A nil year is reported as nil, and the missing report for a quiet year is what an inspection later finds.
Section 16 prohibits publication of the contents of the complaint, the identity and addresses of the parties and witnesses, information relating to the proceedings, the recommendations and the action taken — notwithstanding the Right to Information Act, 2005. Section 17 penalises contravention. A report naming parties is a breach, not diligence.
The proviso to Section 4(1) requires a Committee at all administrative units or offices where these are at different places. Section 21 places the reporting duty on the Committee, so each one reports, and to its own district-level District Officer under Section 5.
A report assembled from memory at year end rarely reconciles with the register, the minutes and the dates on which action was taken under Section 13(4). The report is a product of records kept through the year, which is why the reporting engagement and the compliance engagement are really the same one.
A reporting obligation and a confidentiality prohibition sit in the same Act, and the report has to satisfy both. Section 16 is unusually strongly worded: it operates notwithstanding the Right to Information Act, 2005, which is to say that the ordinary route by which such material might otherwise be extracted does not run here.
Notwithstanding anything contained in the Right to Information Act, 2005, the contents of the complaint made under section 9, the identity and addresses of the aggrieved woman, respondent and witnesses, any information relating to conciliation and inquiry proceedings, recommendations of the Internal Committee or the Local Committee, as the case may be, and the action taken by the employer or the District Officer under the provisions of this Act shall not be published, communicated or made known to the public, press and media in any manner.
Section 16, POSH Act 2013What survives that prohibition, and is what Section 22 asks for, is the number of cases filed and their disposal. Numbers and outcomes in the aggregate; not names, not allegations, not findings, not the text of recommendations. Section 17 provides the penalty where a person entrusted with the duty to handle the complaint, inquiry, recommendations or action contravenes Section 16, applied in accordance with the service rules or, where none exist, in such manner as may be prescribed.
This is also why Committee minutes need a discipline of their own from the first hearing. A minute book written without Section 16 in mind produces a record that cannot safely be circulated to the people who later need the numbers. The point is covered in the Committee orientation limb of Section 19(c), described on the POSH training page.
Section 25(1) empowers the appropriate Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest or in the interest of women employees at a workplace, by order in writing to call upon an employer or District Officer to furnish information and to authorise an officer to inspect records. The annual report is one document in that file, and on its own it proves comparatively little.
A written order under Section 4(1) for each office or administrative unit, with composition tested against Section 4(2) and tenure within the three years allowed by Section 4(3).
The POSH policy, and evidence that the penal consequences and the constitution order are displayed at a conspicuous place at each workplace as Section 19(b) requires.
Dated records of workshops and awareness programmes for employees and, separately, of orientation programmes for Committee members — the two limbs of Section 19(c).
A register that reconciles to the numbers reported, and minutes kept consistently with the confidentiality prohibition in Section 16.
Evidence that the employer acted upon recommendations within sixty days of receipt as Section 13(4) requires, and the determination of compensation under Section 15 where it arose.
A Section 21 report for each completed calendar year, from each Committee, and the Section 22 disclosure or the intimation to the District Officer.
Where an organisation is building this file for the first time, the sequence matters. A missing report for a closed year is addressed on its own facts and is not cured by back-dating; what can be done is to establish the position accurately from the records that do exist, and to close the current year properly.
The report is the Committee's under Section 21, so our advocates work with the Committee rather than in place of it. That means confirming the calendar-year basis, checking that the numbers reconcile to the register and the minutes, ensuring disposal is disclosed without breaching Section 16, drafting the Section 22 disclosure for the employer, and confirming that a report exists from each Committee where the organisation holds units at more than one place.
For most organisations this is the point at which the wider compliance position surfaces, because a report cannot be reconciled against records that were never kept. Reporting engagements therefore frequently turn into constitution and training work, and companies that expect it tend to scope the two together from the start.
Where a company would rather hold reporting, committee seats, training and its other recurring legal work under one standing arrangement, the fractional general counsel model covers it. Companies filling a committee seat should see the external member page, and employers in the capital the POSH lawyer in Delhi page.
There are two separate reporting obligations and they fall on different people. Under Section 21(1) the Internal Committee, or the Local Committee as the case may be, shall in each calendar year prepare an annual report, in such form and at such time as may be prescribed, and submit it to the employer and to the District Officer. Under Section 22 the employer shall include in its report the number of cases filed, if any, and their disposal, in the annual report of the organisation, or where no such report is required to be prepared, intimate the number of cases to the District Officer. The Committee reports; the employer discloses. A company that has done one has not discharged the other.
Section 21(1) says "in each calendar year". That is January to December, and it does not follow the Indian financial year. This is the single most common timing error we see, because finance and secretarial teams naturally run to the April–March cycle and assume POSH does too. The practical consequence is that the Committee’s report has to be closed on a calendar-year basis while the Section 22 disclosure surfaces in the organisation’s annual report, which is prepared on the financial year. The two cycles are not aligned, and the reconciliation between them has to be deliberate.
Yes. Section 21(1) requires the Committee to prepare an annual report in each calendar year, without any qualification for a year in which nothing was filed. Section 22 speaks of "the number of cases filed, if any, and their disposal" — the words "if any" govern the number, not the obligation to state it. A nil year is reported as nil. Treating a quiet year as requiring no report is a compliance gap that becomes visible precisely when it is least convenient, because the absence of a report for an earlier year is what an inspection under Section 25 will surface.
Numbers and disposal, not identities. Section 16 opens with the words "Notwithstanding anything contained in the Right to Information Act, 2005" and prohibits publication or communication of the contents of the complaint, the identity and addresses of the aggrieved woman, the respondent and witnesses, any information relating to conciliation and inquiry proceedings, the recommendations of the Committee, and the action taken. Section 17 provides the penalty where a person entrusted with handling the matter contravenes Section 16. A report that names parties, quotes findings or reproduces recommendations is not a more complete report — it is a contravention.
One from each Internal Committee. The proviso to Section 4(1) requires that where the offices or administrative units of the workplace are located at different places, or at divisional or sub-divisional level, the Internal Committee shall be constituted at all administrative units or offices. Section 21(1) then places the reporting duty on the Committee. Each committee therefore prepares and submits its own annual report, and to its own District Officer, since the District Officer is a district-level functionary under Section 5. The employer’s Section 22 disclosure, by contrast, is a single consolidated figure for the organisation.
Section 21(2) requires the District Officer to forward a brief report on the annual reports received under Section 21(1) to the State Government. The Committee’s report is therefore not the end of the chain, and it is one reason the report should be capable of standing on its own without supporting explanation. Section 23 separately requires the appropriate Government to monitor implementation of the Act and to maintain data on the number of cases filed and disposed of in respect of sexual harassment at workplace.
Section 26(1) makes an employer punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees where the employer fails to constitute an Internal Committee under Section 4(1), fails to take action under Sections 13, 14 and 22, or contravenes or attempts to contravene or abets contravention of other provisions of the Act or the rules. Section 22 is named expressly in that list. Section 26(2) provides that on a subsequent conviction for the same offence the employer is liable to twice the punishment which might have been imposed on a first conviction, subject to the maximum for that offence, and to cancellation of the licence or withdrawal, non-renewal or approval, or cancellation of the registration required for carrying on the business or activity.
For companies to which it applies, yes, and it is a separate requirement from the POSH Act itself. Rule 8(5)(x) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014 requires the Board’s Report to carry a statement of compliance with the provisions relating to the constitution of the Internal Committee, and — with effect from 14 July 2025, under the Companies (Accounts) Second Amendment Rules 2025 (G.S.R. 357(E)) — the number of sexual-harassment complaints received in the year, the number disposed of during the year, and the number of cases pending for more than ninety days. One Person Companies and Small Companies are excepted. Those counts come from the same records that feed the Committee’s Section 21 report, and because the Board’s Report runs on the financial year while Section 21 runs on the calendar year, the Committee’s figures should be closed before the reporting cycle needs them, not after.
Yes. Section 25(1) empowers the appropriate Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest or in the interest of women employees at a workplace to do so, by order in writing to call upon an employer or District Officer to furnish information, and to authorise an officer to inspect records. In practice the file that answers such a call is the same one built through the year: the constitution orders for each unit, the policy, evidence of the Section 19(b) display and of the workshops and Committee orientation required by Section 19(c), Committee minutes kept consistently with Section 16, and the Section 21 reports for each completed calendar year.
The report is the Committee’s under Section 21, so it is prepared by the Committee rather than for it. What our advocates do is work with the Committee on form and content — confirming the calendar-year basis, checking that the numbers reconcile with the register of complaints, ensuring the report discloses disposal without breaching Section 16, drafting the Section 22 disclosure for the employer, and confirming that a report exists for each committee where the organisation has units at more than one place. Where an earlier year was missed, that is addressed on its own facts.
Senior Partner, LLM, MBA (XLRI Jamshedpur). Reviewed with the advocates and associates of Unified Chambers and Associates, a partner-led practice at the Delhi High Court Complex.
Last reviewed: 26 August 2026
Provisions on this page are cited to the enacted text, not to a secondary summary.
Whether you are preparing a first annual report, reconciling several years prepared on the wrong cycle, or drafting the Section 22 disclosure for an organisation with committees at several units, our partner-led team can take it from where it stands.
This page is general legal information about the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the services the firm provides. It is not legal advice, and no advocate–client relationship arises from reading it. Advice on any particular workplace depends on its own facts.