The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 creates a specific, time-bound internal process. Knowing the timelines matters, because they are short.
Who and where
- Every workplace with 10 or more employees must constitute an Internal Committee (IC), chaired by a senior woman employee and including an external member from an NGO or someone familiar with issues of sexual harassment.
- Where there is no IC, or the complaint is against the employer, the complaint goes to the Local Committee constituted by the District Officer.
- "Workplace" is defined widely and includes places visited during employment and transport provided by the employer. The Act protects employees, and also visitors, clients, interns and contract workers at the workplace.
What counts as sexual harassment
The definition is wider than most people assume, and it is worth reading before you decide you have no complaint. It covers physical contact and advances, a demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. It also covers the circumstances around the conduct: an implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment, a threat of detrimental treatment, a threat about your present or future employment status, conduct that interferes with your work or creates an intimidating or offensive environment, and humiliating treatment likely to affect your health or safety. Messages, calls and conduct outside office hours can fall within it where they arise out of the employment. Our note on the POSH complaint procedure in India works through each limb with examples.
The process and its timelines
- Written complaint within three months of the incident, or of the last incident in a series. The IC may extend by a further three months for recorded reasons.
- Conciliation, if the complainant requests it. No monetary settlement may be the basis of conciliation, and it is optional.
- Enquiry by the IC, which must be completed within 90 days. It follows principles of natural justice: the respondent gets the complaint and an opportunity to respond, and both sides may lead evidence, though legal practitioners may not represent parties before the IC.
- Report within 10 days of completion, with recommendations. The employer must act on them within 60 days.
- Appeal to the appellate authority within 90 days.
During the pendency, the IC can recommend transferring the complainant or the respondent, granting the complainant up to three months' leave in addition to her normal entitlement, or restraining the respondent from reporting on her work. Ask for this expressly at the outset; it is not offered automatically and it is the provision that makes continuing at work possible.
| Stage | Period | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Filing the complaint | 3 months from the incident, or from the last incident in a series | Section 9(1) |
| Extension of that period | A further 3 months, where the Committee is satisfied circumstances prevented filing | Proviso to Section 9(1) |
| Completing the inquiry | 90 days | Section 11(4) |
| Committee's report to the employer | 10 days from completion | Section 13(1) |
| Acting on the recommendations | 60 days | Section 13(4) |
| Appeal against the findings | 90 days | Section 18 |
Confidentiality and retaliation
The Act requires confidentiality, and publishing the identity of the complainant, respondent or the proceedings attracts a penalty. Retaliation for filing a complaint is itself actionable, and a termination that follows a POSH complaint is very vulnerable to challenge.
Writing the complaint
Keep it factual and chronological. Give the date, time and place of each incident, what was said or done in the person's own words rather than a summary, who else was present or was told afterwards, and the effect on your work. List your witnesses and your documents separately at the end. Attach the messages, emails, call logs, roster entries or access records that fix the dates, and paginate them. Ask the Internal Committee how many copies with annexures it requires, because the Rules prescribe a number and an incomplete filing wastes a fortnight. Sign and date it, and keep a signed acknowledgement of receipt.
The Committee is not a court, and no lawyer appears for either side, but it is not powerless either. For the purpose of the enquiry it has the same powers as a civil court in respect of summoning and enforcing attendance and examining a person on oath, and requiring the discovery and production of documents. So if the employer is sitting on the CCTV footage, the access logs, the seating chart or the earlier complaints against the same respondent, ask the Committee in writing to call for them; that request, and the response to it, become part of the record.
Criminal proceedings run in parallel
The POSH process is civil and internal. It does not bar a criminal complaint, and the relevant provisions now include Sections 75 and 79 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The IC is required to assist the complainant in filing one if she wishes.
Note that the POSH Act's own text still refers to the corresponding section of the Indian Penal Code, because the Act was passed long before the new criminal codes; that is a drafting point, not a gap in the remedy. The two tracks run at different speeds and to different standards, and it is common for the internal enquiry to conclude long before anything happens on the criminal side.
If the employer has no Committee, or ignores the outcome
Failure to constitute an Internal Committee is itself an offence carrying a monetary penalty on the employer, with escalating consequences on repetition, including action against a licence or registration. Where there is no Committee, or the complaint is against the employer himself, the complaint goes to the Local Committee constituted by the District Officer, which for a Bengaluru complainant is the office of the Deputy Commissioner for the district. The Local Committee also handles complaints by domestic workers and by women in the unorganised sector, who have no internal machinery at all.
If the recommendations are not implemented, or you disagree with them, the appeal under Section 18 lies within ninety days of the recommendations, and non-implementation is itself an appealable grievance. Where the aftermath is a transfer, a poor rating, an exclusion from projects or a termination, treat that as a separate and often stronger claim: a dismissal that follows a POSH complaint is very hard for an employer to defend, and our note on wrongful termination and employee rights in India sets out how that challenge is framed and which forum hears it.