Draft. Prepared from official sources for Adv. Varun Agarwal's review before publication.
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The law in one paragraph
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, usually called the POSH Act, came into force on 9 December 2013 with its Rules.1 The Act puts into statute the guidelines the Supreme Court laid down in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan in 1997, which employers were expected to follow until 2013. It makes every employer responsible for preventing sexual harassment, and for running a fair, time-bound process when a woman complains. Twelve years on, the law itself has barely changed, but enforcement has: since 2024 the Supreme Court has been pushing every district to check whether employers have actually complied, and since July 2025 companies must publish their complaint numbers.
Who and what the law covers
- Who can complain: an aggrieved woman is a woman of any age, whether employed or not, who alleges sexual harassment at a workplace. A client, visitor, candidate or vendor’s employee is covered, not only your staff.2 The Act protects women only. Many employers adopt a gender-neutral policy that also covers men and transgender employees, but complaints by others are handled under that policy and the service rules, not under the Act’s procedure. Reports of a 2026 amendment extending the Act to all genders could not be verified against any official notification at the time of writing.
- Who counts as an employee: anyone working on a regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily-wage basis, directly or through a contractor, paid or unpaid, including trainees, apprentices, probationers and volunteers.
- What counts as a workplace: your offices and units, and also any place an employee visits in the course of work, including transport you provide. Client sites, work travel, offsites and events are within it, and employers should assume that work done from home can be too.
- What counts as sexual harassment: unwelcome physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, or any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. It also covers conduct that comes with a promise of preferential treatment, a threat about her job, interference with her work, or a hostile or intimidating environment.
Ten or more employees: set up an Internal Committee
Every employer with ten or more employees must constitute an Internal CommitteeInternal CommitteeThe committee an employer with ten or more employees must set up under the POSH Act to receive and inquire into complaints of sexual harassment. by a written order. If the organisation has offices or administrative units in different places, each of them needs one.
| Seat | Who may fill it |
|---|---|
| Presiding Officer | A woman employed at a senior level. If there is none, from another office of the same employer or another organisation |
| Employee members | At least two, preferably people committed to the cause of women or with social-work experience or legal knowledge |
| External member | One person from an NGO or association committed to the cause of women, or someone familiar with issues of sexual harassment, such as a social worker with five years’ experience or a person familiar with labour, service, civil or criminal law |
| Women | At least half of all members |
| Term | Up to three years, as the employer specifies |
The Rules set the external member’s allowance at ₹200 a day of proceedings, plus travel, paid by the employer.3 The figure dates from 2013. Nothing in the Act stops an employer agreeing a higher professional fee with the external member. A member must be removed if they breach confidentiality, are convicted or charged, or are found guilty in disciplinary proceedings.
The most common gap is a committee that exists only on paper: terms that lapsed, members who have left, or no external member at all. Findings of a committee that was not properly constituted are open to challenge, so review the order every year.
Fewer than ten employees? You do not need your own committee. Complaints go to the Local CommitteeLocal CommitteeA district-level committee set up by the District Officer. It hears complaints from workplaces with fewer than ten employees, and complaints against an employer personally. that the District OfficerDistrict OfficerThe officer, usually the District Magistrate or a Deputy Collector, whom the state notifies to run the POSH Act in a district. sets up for the district. The Local Committee also hears any complaint made against the employer personally.4 The state notifies a District Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate, Collector or Deputy Collector as the District Officer for each district. Employers in Dehradun and elsewhere in Uttarakhand with fewer than ten employees should find out who their district’s District Officer and Local Committee are, through the district administration or the SHe-Box portal.
The employer’s duties
Beyond constituting the committee, the Act and Rules require every employer to:
- provide a safe workplace, including safety from visitors and others who come into contact with staff
- display the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order constituting the committee
- adopt and circulate a written policy, and publish the names and contact details of the committee members
- hold awareness workshops for employees, and orientation and training for committee members, at regular intervals
- give the committee what it needs to run an inquiry, and help secure the attendance of the respondentRespondentThe person against whom a complaint is made. and witnesses
- treat sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules
- help the woman if she chooses to file a criminal complaint, and initiate action where the harasser is not an employee
- make sure the committee’s reports arrive on time
How a complaint must be handled
| Step | Time limit |
|---|---|
| Woman files a written complaint | Within 3 months of the incident, or of the last incident in a series. The committee may extend this by another 3 months for reasons recorded in writing |
| Committee sends a copy to the respondent | Within 7 working days |
| Respondent replies, with documents and witnesses | Within 10 working days |
| Inquiry completed | Within 90 days |
| Committee’s report to the employer | Within 10 days of completing the inquiry |
| Employer acts on the recommendation | Within 60 days |
| Appeal by either side | Within 90 days of the recommendation |
Points that are easy to get wrong:
- ConciliationConciliationA settlement between the two sides with the committee’s help. Under the POSH Act it happens only at the woman’s request, and never on payment of money. is possible only if the woman asks for it, and only before the inquiry starts. No monetary settlement may be the basis of it.
- During the inquiry, on her written request, the committee may recommend transferring either party, up to three months’ leave for her (over and above the leave she is otherwise entitled to), or stopping the respondent from writing her appraisal.
- The hearing: the committee follows the principles of natural justiceNatural justiceBasic fairness in a hearing: each side knows the case against it, gets to answer it, and the decision-maker is unbiased. and both sides are heard. Lawyers may not appear for either party. At least three members, including the Presiding OfficerPresiding OfficerThe chair of an Internal Committee. She must be a woman employed at a senior level., must be present. If a party misses three consecutive hearings without cause, the committee may end the inquiry or decide ex parteEx parteDecided after hearing only one side, because the other did not appear., after 15 days’ written notice.
- The outcome: where the allegation is proved, and the service rules say nothing else, the committee may recommend a written apology, warning, reprimand, withholding of promotion or increments, termination, counselling or community service. It may also direct compensation from the respondent’s salary, considering her trauma, lost career opportunity, medical costs and his means.
- False complaints: action is possible only if the complaint was malicious or knowingly false, and that must be established through an inquiry. Failing to prove a complaint is not enough.
- Confidentiality: the complaint, the identities of the people involved, the proceedings and the outcome may not be made public, even under the RTI Act. Anyone who leaks them can be made to pay ₹5,000, which the employer recovers.
- Criminal law runs separately. Sexual harassment is also an offence under Section 75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced Section 354A of the old Penal Code in July 2024. The committee’s inquiry does not stop a police complaint, or the other way round.
Annual reports, and the new Board’s-report disclosures
- The committee’s annual report: every calendar year, the committee must send the employer and the District Officer a report giving the complaints received, complaints disposed of, cases pending for more than 90 days, workshops held and the action taken.
- The employer’s annual report: the number of cases and their disposal must go into the organisation’s own annual report. An employer that does not prepare one must send the numbers to the District Officer.
- Companies, from 14 July 2025: the Board’s report must now state the number of complaints received, disposed of, and pending for more than 90 days in the year, along with a statement on compliance with the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. Before this, a one-line confirmation that the committee existed was enough.5 The change was made to Rule 8 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014. Small companies and one person companies prepare a shorter Board’s report under Rule 8A, so confirm with your company secretary which items apply.
The Supreme Court’s compliance drive
In Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, the Supreme Court has been supervising how the Act is implemented across the country:
- December 2024: every state was directed to notify a District Officer for each district, set up Local Committees and nodal officers, and survey whether public and private workplaces had constituted their committees.
- 12 August 2025: the Court ordered a district-wise survey within six weeks. District labour officers were to list registered establishments and verify on the ground that each one had a committee, labour departments were directed to act against those that had not, and the results were to be uploaded to SHe-BoxSHe-BoxSexual Harassment electronic Box: the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s online portal for complaints and for records of Internal and Local Committees..
SHe-Box is the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s portal for complaints and committee records, relaunched on 29 August 2024. By 27 March 2026, more than 1.61 lakh workplaces with over ten employees were registered on it, along with 68,460 Internal Committees and Local Committees in all 777 districts. Complaints filed on the portal are routed to the committee registered for the workplace, which is another reason to register. Several states and districts, including Rajasthan, Karnataka, Odisha and Noida, have directed employers to register.6 At the time of writing we had not found a similar direction for Uttarakhand. Registering is still advisable: the survey and the portal are how the authorities now check compliance.
Your committee may have to hear complaints against outsiders. In Dr. Sohail Malik v. Union of India (10 December 2025), the Supreme Court held that a woman can complain to the Internal Committee at her own workplace even when the man she complains about works elsewhere. The case arose between two government departments, but the reasoning rests on the Act’s wide definition of workplace. Expect your committee to receive complaints involving clients, vendors and contractors, and train it accordingly. Our case note on the judgment sets out the reasoning.
Penalties
- Up to ₹50,000 for failing to constitute an Internal Committee, failing to act on its recommendations or reports, or breaching any other provision of the Act or Rules.
- For a repeat offence: double the penalty, and possible cancellation or non-renewal of the licence or registration the business needs to operate.
- For companies: an incomplete Board’s report is a separate default under the Companies Act.
The larger costs are usually elsewhere. An inquiry run by a defective committee can be set aside, the woman can approach the courts, and the case becomes public in a way the confidential committee process is designed to prevent.
Sources
- The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, India Code, and the Act with the 2013 Rules, as published by Delhi Police
- Companies (Accounts) Second Amendment Rules, 2025, SCC Online, July 2025
- Supreme Court directions of December 2024 and the district-wise survey order of August 2025, Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa
- Dr. Sohail Malik v. Union of India, 2025 INSC 1415, Supreme Court Observer
- Launch of the SHe-Box portal, PIB, and the Ministry’s April 2026 update on SHe-Box
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This article is general information about the law as of the date above. It is not legal advice. Policies and schemes change; check the current position before you act.