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Every employer with a workplace in the city, whatever its size. Section 4(1) of the POSH Act 2013 says that every employer of a workplace shall, by an order in writing, constitute an Internal Committee. There is no headcount threshold in that sub-section. What distinguishes Gurugram is not who is covered but how complicated coverage becomes: the city concentrates multinational captives, global capability centres, IT and ITeS delivery units, consulting firms, insurers and fintech employers, and a very large number of them occupy more than one building here while also holding offices in other cities.
That single fact drives most of the compliance work in this market. It is also why a POSH compliance lawyer advising a Gurugram employer starts with a map of units rather than a template policy.
Multinational captives, global capability centres and consulting and insurance groups, most of them occupying several towers and running shift operations. Committee scoping here is rarely a single-site question, because one legal entity often holds more than one leased unit in the city and further offices in other states.
A mix of manufacturing, back-office and services employers with substantial contractor-supplied workforces. Section 2(f) brings agency and contractor personnel inside the scheme with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, which is where headcount-based scoping usually goes wrong.
Fast-growing IT and fintech occupiers, many of them recently incorporated Indian subsidiaries of foreign parents. New entities frequently import a global anti-harassment policy without the Indian statutory scaffolding — the written constitution order, the composition test, the display, the annual report.
Yes, if it is an office or administrative unit of the employer located at a different place. The proviso to Section 4(1) is explicit, and it is the provision that most often catches companies in this city.
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 2013Three patterns recur. A group with its registered office in Mumbai or Bengaluru and its largest workforce in Gurugram runs everything through a head-office committee. A captive that has taken space in two or three towers treats the whole city as one workplace when the units are separately administered. A foreign parent applies its global reporting hotline and assumes that discharges the Indian obligation. None of the three satisfies the proviso, and the defect is structural rather than cosmetic: if the committee that heard a matter was not validly constituted for that unit, the finding is exposed from the outset.
The knock-on obligations multiply with the map. The display of penal consequences and of the constitution order under Section 19(b) is a per-workplace duty. Orientation programmes for Committee members under Section 19(c) apply to each committee. The annual report under Section 21 has to account for every committee. The full statutory scheme, provision by provision, is set out on the firm's POSH compliance page.
To the Local Committee for the district. The Local Committee is constituted at district level by the District Officer, so for a workplace in the city that is the Local Committee for Gurugram district, Haryana. Under Section 6(1) it 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.
Two practical consequences follow for employers here. First, the widely repeated line that the POSH Act "applies only at ten or more employees" is a misreading: the ten-worker figure sits in Section 6, which routes complaints, not in Section 4(1), which imposes the duty to constitute. A small studio, brokerage or start-up on Sohna Road is inside the Act. Second, a complaint against the employer himself does not go to the employer's own committee at all, which is a live point for the many promoter-controlled entities and small Indian arms operating in the city.
The firm does not publish contact particulars for the District Officer or the Local Committee. Those are administrative details that change, and an employer or complainant should take them from the current official source at the time they are needed.
A member from a non-governmental organisation or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment. That is what Section 4(2) provides, and an advocate practising in this area comes within the second limb. Under Section 4(4) the member appointed from a non-governmental organisation or association is to be paid such fees or allowances for holding proceedings, by the employer, as may be prescribed.
Two composition rules are frequently confused. The external member need not be a woman. What Section 4(2) requires is that at least one-half of the total members nominated shall be women, and separately that the Presiding Officer shall be a woman employed at a senior level at the workplace from amongst the employees, with provisos allowing nomination from another office or unit, and failing that from any other workplace of the same employer, where such a woman is not available. Where a Gurugram company nonetheless prefers a woman on the external seat, our team includes women advocates and the firm can nominate one.
Tenure is the other thing to diarise. Under Section 4(3) the Presiding Officer and every member hold office for a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination. Committees constituted in a hurry at a new Gurugram site tend to lapse quietly three years later, which is exactly when a matter arrives. What the seat involves in practice is set out on the external member page.
Six workstreams, usually run together. Unified Chambers and Associates is a partner-led team of advocates and associates, and on POSH mandates our advocates work with human resources, in-house legal and the Internal Committee itself rather than issuing a document and leaving.
Mapping every office and administrative unit the entity holds in the city and elsewhere, drafting the written order under Section 4(1) for each, testing composition against Section 4(2) — a woman employed at a senior level as Presiding Officer, at least one-half of the nominated members women, and the external member in place — and diarising the three-year tenure cap in Section 4(3).
Our advocates sit as the external member on Internal Committees at Gurugram workplaces, 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 requirement is that at least one-half of the nominated members are women under Section 4(2). Section 4(4) provides for the fees or allowances payable by the employer for holding proceedings.
For Gurugram subsidiaries of foreign parents, reconciling a global code of conduct with the Indian Act — the Section 2(f) definition of employee, the Section 9 complaint route and time limit, the Section 10 position that no monetary settlement may be made as a basis of conciliation, the confidentiality prohibition in Section 16 and the penalty in Section 17, and the linkage that treats sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules.
Workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals under Section 19(c), delivered on site across the city or virtually for distributed teams, with separate orientation programmes for Internal Committee members. Manager sessions, new-joiner modules and refreshers are scheduled against the site calendar rather than run once and forgotten.
Procedural guidance to a Committee through the statutory sequence — receipt under Section 9, conciliation under Section 10 only at the aggrieved woman’s request, interim relief under Section 12 on her written request, the ninety-day inquiry under Section 11(4), the ten-day report under Section 13(1), employer action within sixty days under Section 13(3), and determination of compensation under Section 15 where it arises. Section 14 on false or malicious complaints is applied with care, since an inability to substantiate a complaint is not by itself a basis for action against the complainant.
The Internal Committee’s annual report under Section 21, the employer’s Section 22 disclosure of the number of cases filed and their disposal, the POSH statement carried in the Board’s Report under the Companies (Accounts) Rules, and a file that can withstand a Section 25 call for information or inspection of records.
Engagement is on an annual retainer, scoped to workforce size and number of offices, and is discussed at the outset. Gurugram employers that want a standing legal function across employment, data protection and commercial matters rather than a POSH-only mandate can read about the firm's fractional general counsel arrangement, into which this work is commonly folded.
As two separate programmes, at regular intervals, covering everyone who works at the site and not only those on payroll. Section 19(c) requires every employer to organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitising employees with the provisions of the Act, and to organise orientation programmes for members of the Internal Committee. Those are different audiences with different needs — an awareness session teaches people what the Act protects and how to complain; an orientation teaches a Committee how to run an inquiry that will hold.
Scope follows Section 2(f). A Gurugram tower typically has facilities, security, housekeeping, cafeteria, transport and staffing personnel supplied through contractors, plus interns and consultants. Section 2(f) covers a person employed for any work on regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, 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. Awareness programmes built only for badge-carrying employees miss a substantial part of the population the Act contemplates.
Because the firm's chambers are at the Delhi High Court complex, in-person delivery in Gurugram is straightforward — committee orientation at the site, employee workshops across shifts, and management briefings. Distributed and hybrid teams are covered virtually. Alongside the sessions, Section 19(b) requires the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order constituting the Internal Committee to be displayed at a conspicuous place in the workplace, which for multi-tower occupiers means each of them, and in practice the intranet as well.
A fine, a repeat-offence consequence that reaches the business licence, and an inquiry outcome that does not survive challenge. 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.
The quieter exposures matter more to a large employer. Section 25 empowers the appropriate authority to call for information and inspect records, so the file has to exist before it is asked for. Section 16 prohibits publication or making known the contents of the complaint and the inquiry proceedings and Section 17 provides the penalty — a real constraint on how minutes, draft reports and mailing lists are handled in an organisation used to circulating documents widely. Section 27(1) provides that cognizance of an offence under the Act is taken only on a complaint made by the aggrieved woman or a person authorised by the Internal Committee or Local Committee, and Section 28 confirms the Act is not in derogation of 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, recorded serious implementation gaps in the POSH Act across the public and private sectors, and issued directions aimed at effective implementation, including verification that Internal Committees are constituted and their details published. For a Gurugram employer the practical reading is simple: a committee that exists only on paper, or a report whose procedure cannot be defended, is a present risk rather than a dormant one.
From chambers at the Delhi High Court complex, which puts Gurugram within practical reach for the parts of this work that are better done in the room — constituting a committee, orienting its members, running employee workshops, briefing management, and sitting as external member in an inquiry. Policy drafting, multi-unit scoping, inquiry guidance and annual reporting are handled the same way for a Gurugram entity as for its offices elsewhere in India, which is usually what a company with units in several states actually needs.
A first engagement generally begins with a review: what the entity holds in the city and outside it, which committees exist and when they were nominated, what the policy says against what the Act says, whether the Section 19 display and training obligations are evidenced, and whether the Section 21 and Section 22 reporting has been closed. Where the review turns up a gap mid-inquiry, the sequence changes — the running matter is stabilised on the statutory clock first.
Senior Partner Advocate Subodh Bajpai (LLM, MBA XLRI) leads the team that advises on these mandates, with advocates and associates on each engagement. More about the practice is at Unified Chambers and Associates, and enquiries can be sent through the contact page.
If you have an office or administrative unit in Gurugram, that unit carries its own POSH obligations, so it usually needs advice on the ground and not only at head office. The proviso to Section 4(1) of the POSH Act 2013 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. A Gurugram site is such a unit. Our partner-led team advises Gurugram employers from chambers at the Delhi High Court complex, which keeps in-person committee orientation, workshops and management briefings practical.
Yes, on the plain language of the proviso to Section 4(1). A single central Internal Committee sitting at head office does not discharge the obligation where the employer has offices at different places. A company with a Bengaluru head office and a Gurugram delivery centre needs an Internal Committee at the Gurugram unit as well, constituted by an order in writing, with composition tested against Section 4(2) and tenure limited by Section 4(3) to a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination.
Internal Committee, abbreviated IC. 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. Policies, notice-board displays and constitution orders drafted for a Gurugram workplace read as better-advised documents when they use the current statutory term.
The Local Committee is constituted at the district level by the District Officer, so for a Gurugram workplace it is the Local Committee for Gurugram district. Under Section 6(1) 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. That second limb matters for small promoter-run entities in the city, because a complaint against the employer does not go to the employer’s own committee.
Yes. Section 4(2) requires one member from a non-governmental organisation or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment. An advocate who works on these matters falls within that description. Under Section 4(4) that member is to be paid such fees or allowances for holding proceedings, by the employer, as may be prescribed. Our advocates take external member seats on Internal Committees at Gurugram workplaces, and where a company prefers a woman on that seat the firm can nominate a woman advocate from its team.
Yes. 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. Gurugram offices run heavily on contractor-supplied facilities, security, transport and staffing teams as well as interns and consultants, so the working population of a site is almost always larger than its payroll.
At regular intervals. Section 19(c) requires every employer to organise workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitising employees with the provisions of the Act, and to organise orientation programmes for members of the Internal Committee. The Act sets two distinct obligations here, not one, and a company that trains employees but never orients its Committee has met only half of it. Section 19(b) separately requires display at a conspicuous place in the workplace of the penal consequences of sexual harassment and of the order constituting the Internal Committee under Section 4(1).
Section 26(1) makes non-compliance, including failure to constitute the Internal Committee, punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees. 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 separately empowers the appropriate authority to call for information and inspect records.
The Act fixes the clock. A written complaint is to be made within three months of the incident, or of the last incident in a series, under Section 9(1), extendable by the Committee for reasons recorded in writing by a further period not exceeding three months. The inquiry shall be completed within ninety days under Section 11(4). The report of findings goes to the employer within ten days of completion under Section 13(1) and is made available to the parties. The employer shall act upon the recommendation within sixty days of receipt under Section 13(3). An appeal is to be preferred within ninety days of the recommendations under Section 18(2).
The constitution orders for each office, the policy, evidence of the Section 19(b) display and of workshops and orientation under Section 19(c), the Committee minutes kept consistently with the confidentiality prohibition in Section 16, the Internal 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. A company’s Board’s Report carries a statement on POSH compliance and constitution of the Internal Committee under the Companies (Accounts) Rules, and listed entities disclose sexual-harassment complaint numbers in annual business-responsibility reporting, so the Committee’s report should be closed before the reporting cycle does.
Whether you are constituting Internal Committees across Gurugram and other units, filling an external member seat, scheduling POSH training for employees, 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.