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POSH compliance requires four things of an employer, and they are cumulative. First, an Internal Committee constituted by an order in writing under Section 4(1) — at every office, not merely at head office. Second, a policy and a service-rules linkage that treats sexual harassment as misconduct, so that a recommendation can be acted upon. Third, the duties in Section 19, which are ongoing rather than one-time. Fourth, reporting — the Committee's annual report under Section 21 and the employer's disclosure under Section 22.
Section 19 is where most compliance programmes are actually tested. Every employer shall provide a safe working environment at the workplace, which includes safety from the persons coming into contact at the workplace. Every employer shall display at a conspicuous place in the workplace the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order constituting the Internal Committee under Section 4(1). Every employer shall organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitising employees, and orientation programmes for members of the Internal Committee. The section also requires the employer to provide the Committee with facilities, to assist in securing the attendance of respondents and witnesses, to make available information required by the Committee, to assist the woman if she chooses to file a complaint in relation to the offence under any law, to treat sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules, and to monitor the timely submission of reports by the Committee.
The correct current statutory term is Internal Committee, not ICC. Act 23 of 2016 substituted "Internal Complaints Committee" with "Internal Committee", and "Local Complaints Committee" with "Local Committee", with effect from 6 May 2016.Act 23 of 2016, s.3 read with the Second Schedule
The section heading of Section 4 still reads "Constitution of Internal Complaints Committee", which is why the older acronym survives in circulation. The operative text says Internal Committee. It is a small point, but orders, policies, notice boards and Board's Report language drafted in the current statutory term read as better-advised documents when a regulator, an auditor or a court looks at them.
Every employer must comply. Section 4(1) is unqualified: every employer of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute a Committee — since 2016 the Internal Committee. There is no headcount qualification in that sub-section — which is why the widely repeated statement that "POSH applies only at ten or more employees" is a misreading of the scheme.
From Section 6. The Local Committee receives complaints from establishments where the Internal Committee has not been constituted due to having less than ten workers, and also where the complaint is against the employer himself. So the accurate statement is this: every employer must constitute an Internal Committee under Section 4(1); workplaces with fewer than ten workers, and complaints against the employer, fall to the Local Committee under Section 6. A small establishment is not outside the Act — the forum changes, not the obligation to provide a safe working environment.
More people than the payroll shows. Section 2(f) defines an employee as a person employed at a workplace for any work on regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, either directly or through an agent including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis or otherwise. Contract staff, agency personnel, interns, consultants and volunteers are inside that definition. Companies that scope their POSH programme to permanent headcount alone tend to under-scope both their committee coverage and their training obligation.
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.
Proviso to Section 4(1), POSH Act 2013This is the most widely missed obligation in the Act. A company with a registered office in Delhi and operating units in Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai and Bengaluru does not comply by constituting one central committee. It needs an Internal Committee at each of those administrative units. Multi-office scoping is the first thing our team maps in a compliance review, because everything downstream — the display under Section 19(b), orientation under Section 19(c), the Section 21 annual report — multiplies with it.
By an order in writing, with a composition fixed by Section 4(2) and a tenure fixed by Section 4(3). Four rules decide whether a committee is validly constituted, and a defect in any of them is the kind of thing that surfaces at the worst possible moment — when a report is challenged.
A woman employed at a senior level at the workplace from amongst the employees. Where a senior-level woman employee is not available, the provisos to Section 4(2)(a) allow nomination from other offices or administrative units, and failing that from any other workplace of the same employer.
At least one-half of the total members so nominated shall be women. This is a composition test applied to the nominated members, and it is separate from the question of who takes the external seat.
A member appointed from amongst non-governmental organisations or associations. Under Section 4(4) that member is to be paid such fees or allowances for holding the proceedings of the Internal Committee, by the employer, as may be prescribed.
Under Section 4(3) the Presiding Officer and every member hold office for a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination, as specified by the employer. Tenure expiry is a routine audit finding.
Our advocates take external member seats on Internal Committees, and where a company prefers a woman on that seat the firm can nominate a woman advocate from its team. Statutorily the external member need not be a woman; the binding constraint is the one-half requirement in Section 4(2) applied across the nominated members. The distinction matters when a committee is being rebuilt and the seats have to add up. More on the external member role.
The Act fixes the clock end to end: three months to complain, extendable by three; ninety days for the inquiry; ten days for the report; sixty days for the employer to act; ninety days to appeal. A committee that drifts past these is not merely late — it gives the eventual challenge its easiest ground.
Written complaint to the Internal Committee within three months of the incident, or of the last incident in a series. Extendable by a further period not exceeding three months for reasons recorded in writing.
Before an inquiry is initiated and only at the aggrieved woman’s request, the Committee may take steps to settle the matter. No monetary settlement may be made as a basis of conciliation.
The inquiry shall be completed within ninety days. Section 12 allows interim relief — transfer of the aggrieved woman or the respondent, or leave — on her written request during pendency.
The Committee provides its report of findings to the employer within ten days of completion of the inquiry, and the report is made available to the concerned parties.
The employer shall act upon the recommendation within sixty days of its receipt. Section 15 governs determination of compensation payable to the aggrieved woman.
An appeal under Section 18(1) lies in accordance with the applicable service rules, or in the prescribed manner where none exist, and is to be preferred within ninety days of the recommendations.
Two provisions sit alongside the clock and are frequently mishandled. Section 14 provides for punishment for a false or malicious complaint and false evidence — a provision to be applied with considerable care, since an inability to substantiate a complaint is not by itself a basis for action against the complainant. Section 16 prohibits publication or making known the contents of the complaint and the inquiry proceedings, and Section 17 provides the penalty for doing so; internal circulation of a draft report to people outside the process is a real exposure, not a theoretical one.
Ten items, each traceable to a provision. This is the working list our team applies in a compliance review, and it is deliberately ordered the way a regulator or an auditor would walk through a file.
A written order under Section 4(1) for the head office and for each office or administrative unit located at a different place or at divisional or sub-divisional level, as the proviso requires.
A woman employed at a senior level as Presiding Officer, at least one-half of the nominated members women, and the member from non-governmental organisations or associations in place.
Section 4(3) caps the Presiding Officer and every member at a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination. Lapsed nominations are a common audit finding.
Section 4(4) requires the member appointed from non-governmental organisations or associations to be paid fees or allowances for holding the proceedings, by the employer, as prescribed.
A POSH policy consistent with the Act and the POSH Rules 2013, with sexual harassment treated as misconduct under the applicable service rules.
The penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order constituting the Internal Committee displayed at a conspicuous place in the workplace — physically and on the intranet for distributed teams.
Section 19(c) requires workshops and awareness programmes for employees at regular intervals and orientation programmes for Internal Committee members. Both, not one.
Section 16 prohibits publication or making known the contents of the complaint and the inquiry proceedings, and Section 17 provides the penalty. File access, minutes and mailing lists should be built around this.
The Committee’s annual report under Section 21, and the Section 22 disclosure of the number of cases filed and their disposal in the organisation’s annual report, or intimation of the number to the District Officer.
Section 25 empowers the appropriate authority to call for information and inspect records. Orders, notices, attendance of training, minutes and reports should be retrievable on request.
Section 26(1) makes non-compliance — including failure to constitute the Internal Committee — punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees. The second conviction is the one that carries commercial weight. Under Section 26(2), 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 provided 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.
Section 25 gives the appropriate authority power to call for information and to inspect records, so the file has to exist before it is asked for. Section 27(1) provides that no court shall take cognizance of an offence under the Act save on a complaint made by the aggrieved woman or a person authorised by the Internal Committee or Local Committee. Section 28 confirms that the Act is not in derogation of any other law — POSH proceedings and other remedies coexist, which is why Section 19 requires the employer to assist a woman who chooses to file a complaint in relation to the offence under any other law.
In Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, Civil Appeal No. 2482 of 2014, decided 12 May 2023, the Supreme Court set aside an inquiry for procedural infirmity and recorded serious implementation gaps in the POSH Act across the public and private sectors. The Court issued directions aimed at effective implementation, including verification that Internal Committees are constituted and that their constitution and details are published, and called for status reporting on compliance. That judgment is the reason the enforcement climate today is materially different from the first decade of the Act: a committee that exists only on paper, or a report that cannot survive scrutiny of its procedure, is a live risk rather than a dormant one.
Unified Chambers and Associates is a partner-led team of advocates and associates. On POSH mandates our advocates work with human resources, legal and the Internal Committee itself — from constitution through the annual report, and, where it comes to that, in the High Court.
A policy that tracks the Act and the POSH Rules 2013 rather than a downloaded template — definitions aligned to Section 2(f), the complaint route and timelines stated correctly, confidentiality obligations under Sections 16 and 17 built in, and the linkage to the service rules made explicit so that a Section 13(3) recommendation can actually be acted upon.
Drafting the written order under Section 4(1) for each office or administrative unit, testing composition against Section 4(2), diarising the three-year tenure under Section 4(3), and running the orientation programmes for Committee members that Section 19(c) requires.
Our advocates take the external member seat on Internal Committees. Where a company prefers a woman on that seat, the firm can nominate a woman advocate from its team. Statutorily the external member need not be a woman, but at least one-half of the nominated members must be women under Section 4(2), which is the constraint that actually has to be satisfied.
Workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals under Section 19(c), delivered on site in Delhi NCR or virtually for distributed teams, with separate sessions for managers and for Internal Committee members, whose needs are different.
Procedural guidance to the Committee through the statutory clock — receipt under Section 9, the Section 10 position on conciliation, the ninety-day inquiry under Section 11(4), interim relief under Section 12, the ten-day report under Section 13(1) and employer action within sixty days under Section 13(3) — so that findings are not later set aside for procedural infirmity.
The Committee’s annual report under Section 21, the employer’s Section 22 disclosure, the POSH statement carried in the Board’s Report under the Companies (Accounts) Rules, and readiness for a Section 25 call for information or inspection of records.
Writ proceedings before the Delhi High Court arising from Internal Committee inquiries and the action taken on them, for employers and for parties affected by a report, along with appeals under Section 18 where the applicable service rules provide the forum.
Engagement is on an annual retainer, scoped to workforce size and number of offices, and is discussed at the outset. Companies that prefer a standing legal function across employment, data protection and commercial matters can read about the firm's fractional general counsel arrangement, into which POSH work is often folded.
The firm's chambers are at the Delhi High Court complex, and most on-site work — committee orientation, employee workshops, board-level briefings — is delivered across Delhi NCR, including Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. Policy drafting, committee constitution across multiple units, inquiry support and annual reporting are delivered virtually for clients elsewhere in India, which suits the multi-office reality that the proviso to Section 4(1) creates. For the two NCR employment centres where most of this work sits, we have set out what the engagement looks like locally — POSH compliance in Gurugram and in Noida.
POSH work rarely arrives alone. Committee records are personal data, and the interaction between confidentiality under Sections 16 and 17 and an organisation's obligations under the data protection regime is a live design question — our DPDP compliance and data protection practice sits alongside this one. Where a set of facts also engages the criminal law and the employer's Section 19 duty to assist a woman who chooses to file a complaint under another law, the firm's criminal defence practice in Delhi advises on the parallel track. More about the practice is at Unified Chambers and Associates.
Senior Partner Advocate Subodh Bajpai (LLM, MBA XLRI) leads the team that advises on these mandates, with advocates and associates on each engagement.
POSH compliance means giving effect to the duties an employer owes under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. In practice it has four working parts: constituting an Internal Committee by written order under Section 4(1) at every office or administrative unit, adopting a policy and treating sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules, discharging the Section 19 duties (a safe working environment, conspicuous display of the penal consequences and of the order constituting the Internal Committee, and regular workshops for employees plus orientation programmes for Internal Committee members), and reporting — the Committee’s annual report under Section 21 and the employer’s disclosure of the number of cases filed and their disposal under Section 22.
The Act applies to every employer. Section 4(1) says that every employer of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute an Internal Committee. The often-quoted figure of ten comes from Section 6, which provides that the Local Committee receives complaints from establishments where the Internal Committee has not been constituted due to having less than ten workers, and also where the complaint is against the employer himself. So a very small establishment is not outside the Act — its complaints route to the Local Committee at the district level, and the employer’s other obligations, including a safe working environment and awareness, remain.
Yes. The proviso to Section 4(1) states 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. This is the single most frequently missed requirement. A company headquartered in Delhi with branches in Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai and Bengaluru needs an Internal Committee at each of those administrative units, not one central committee that hears everything.
Under Section 4(2), the Presiding Officer shall be a woman employed at a senior level at the workplace from amongst the employees, with provisos allowing nomination from other offices or administrative units, and failing that from any other workplace of the same employer, where a senior-level woman employee is not available. At least one-half of the total members nominated shall be women. The Committee also includes a member drawn from non-governmental organisations or associations — the external member — who under Section 4(4) is to be paid fees or allowances for holding the proceedings by the employer, as prescribed. Under Section 4(3) the Presiding Officer and every member hold office for a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination.
Yes. Section 2(f) defines an employee very broadly — a person employed at a workplace for any work on regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, either directly or through an agent including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis or otherwise. Contract staff, interns, consultants and volunteers therefore fall within the scheme. Companies that size their compliance to their payroll headcount alone routinely under-scope it.
Section 9(1) allows an aggrieved woman to make a written complaint to the Internal Committee — or to the Local Committee where no Internal Committee exists — within three months from the date of the incident, and in the case of a series of incidents within three months from the date of the last incident. The Committee may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, extend that period by a further period not exceeding three months. Section 9(2) allows a legal heir or other prescribed person to complain where the aggrieved woman is unable to do so because of physical or mental incapacity, death or otherwise.
The statutory chain is fixed. Under Section 11(4) the inquiry shall be completed within ninety days. Under Section 13(1) the Committee provides its report of findings to the employer or District Officer within ten days of completion, and the report is made available to the concerned parties. Under Section 13(3) the employer or District Officer shall act upon the recommendation within sixty days of its receipt. An appeal under Section 18 is to be preferred within ninety days of the recommendations. Section 10 also permits conciliation before an inquiry is initiated, at the request of the aggrieved woman, but no monetary settlement may be made as a basis of conciliation.
Section 26(1) makes non-compliance — including failure to constitute the Internal Committee — punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees. 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 provided 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. Section 25 separately empowers the appropriate authority to call for information and inspect records.
The correct current statutory term is Internal Committee. Act 23 of 2016, by Section 3 read with the Second Schedule, substituted "Internal Complaints Committee" with "Internal Committee" and "Local Complaints Committee" with "Local Committee" with effect from 6 May 2016. The section heading of Section 4 still reads "Constitution of Internal Complaints Committee", which is why the older acronym survives in circulation, but the operative text says Internal Committee. Orders, policies and notices are better drafted using the current term.
Section 22 of the POSH Act requires the employer to include in its report the number of cases filed, if any, and their disposal under the Act in the annual report of the organisation, or where no such report is required to be prepared, to intimate the number of cases to the District Officer. Separately, under the Companies (Accounts) Rules a company’s Board’s Report is required to carry a statement on compliance with the POSH Act and constitution of the Internal Committee, and listed entities carry sexual harassment complaint disclosures in their annual business-responsibility reporting. These are read together at audit time, so the Committee’s Section 21 annual report should be finalised before the reporting cycle closes.
If you are constituting Internal Committees across multiple offices, refreshing a policy, filling an external member seat, or dealing with an inquiry already under way, 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.