Constitute the Internal Committee now, by a written order under Section 4(1) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and hand it the complaint the day the order is signed. A POSH complaint with no Internal Committee in place does not lapse and cannot be parked: Section 9(1) lets the woman take it to the district Local Committee instead, and if she has already done that the company cannot pull it back. Setting the committee up this week does not undo the earlier breach, which Section 26 punishes with a fine of up to fifty thousand rupees, but it is the only step that lets the company hear the complaint itself.
Part of the POSH and workplace harassment practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This page is for the founder or HR head of a Bengaluru company of ten or more people that never got round to the committee and now has a complaint against a team lead in the inbox. Her side of the same moment is answered in my company has no internal committee, where do I complain, and the filing and hearing of a complaint in the POSH complaint procedure guide.
We have no Internal Committee and a POSH complaint has come in: what do we do this week?
Ten things, in this order. The first four happen before the committee exists.
- Acknowledge the complaint in writing the same day, record the time of receipt, and keep the original email with every attachment.
- Restrict circulation. Section 16 bars disclosure of the complaint's contents and the identities of the woman, the respondent and the witnesses, and rule 12 of the 2013 Rules makes the employer recover five thousand rupees from anyone who breaks it. Two people hold the file.
- Preserve mail, chat, access and CCTV records for the dates named, and instruct IT in writing to stop routine deletion.
- Do not question either party on the merits yourself. Section 11 gives the inquiry to the committee, and a founder's informal fact-finding is the first thing the losing side attacks.
- Identify the Presiding Officer, a woman employed at a senior level. If there is none, the provisos to Section 4(2)(a) allow one from another office or unit, or from another workplace of the same employer or another organisation.
- Nominate at least two more members from among the employees, preferably committed to the cause of women or with social work experience or legal knowledge, under Section 4(2)(b).
- Engage the external member under Section 4(2)(c): someone from a non-governmental organisation or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment. Take a CV that shows it. The company's own lawyer is the wrong choice.
- Check that at least half the members are women, that none is disqualified under Section 4(5), and that no term exceeds three years under Section 4(3). Then sign the written order Section 4(1) requires, dated the day it is signed.
- Display the order and the penal consequences of sexual harassment at a conspicuous place under Section 19(b), circulate the policy rule 13 requires, and give the committee a room and a mail ID under Section 19(d).
- Hand the complaint to the committee against a dated receipt. Rule 7(2) then gives it seven working days to send a copy to the respondent. Ask the complainant in writing whether she wants interim measures under Section 12 or conciliation under Section 10.
The clocks that now bind the company, the committee and both parties.
| Stage | Time limit | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Woman files the complaint | Three months from the incident, or from the last incident in a series, extendable by up to three months for reasons recorded in writing | Section 9(1) |
| Committee sends the complaint to the respondent | Seven working days from receipt | Rule 7(2) |
| Respondent files his reply, documents and witness list | Ten working days from receiving the papers | Rule 7(3) |
| Inquiry completed | Ninety days | Section 11(4) |
| Report to the employer, made available to both parties | Ten days from completion of the inquiry | Section 13(1) |
| Employer acts on the recommendation | Sixty days from receipt | Section 13(4) |
| Appeal by either party | Ninety days from the recommendations | Section 18(2) |
Deadline warning. The ninety days in Section 11(4) do not wait for the committee to be formed. A fortnight spent finding an external member is a fortnight lost, and only the reasons the committee records will protect it later.
Is it too late to set up the committee, and how do we constitute one that survives challenge?
It is not too late to constitute the committee, it is too late to have complied, and the two are different things. Section 4(1) places the duty on every employer of a workplace, with a proviso requiring a committee at each administrative unit or office located elsewhere. The Act attaches no headcount to the duty itself.
The composition in Section 4(2) is a floor. A Presiding Officer who is a woman employed at a senior level, not fewer than two employee members, one external member, and at least one-half women overall. That is four people at minimum. Rule 7(7) requires three of them including the Presiding Officer at every hearing, so five is safer than four.
The external member is where employers go wrong, and Ruchika Singh Chhabra v Air France India (Delhi High Court, Division Bench, 30 May 2018) shows how. The company had appointed a labour lawyer as its independent member and relied on rule 4 of the 2013 Rules, which treats a person familiar with labour, service, civil or criminal law as familiar with sexual harassment issues. The Court held that rule 4 is written for Section 7(1)(c), the Local Committee, not for Section 4(2)(c). Nothing on record showed the lawyer's experience with sexual harassment cases or the cause of women, so the committee was declared invalid, its report set aside, and the company directed to reconstitute within thirty days and inquire afresh. On appeal the Supreme Court, on 26 July 2018, let a new committee inquire afresh, kept the question of law open and directed that the High Court order not be treated as a precedent. The lesson survived: the person you appoint must be able to show, on paper, why Section 4(2)(c) describes them.
Three documents go into the committee's file on day one: the signed constitution order, the external member's CV and engagement letter recording the Section 4(2)(c) basis, and each member's confirmation that no Section 4(5) disqualification applies. A High Court reads that file first when a report is attacked on composition, as how to challenge a POSH inquiry report explains. Three facts decide whether the order holds.
Four people minimum
A senior woman employee as Presiding Officer, two employee members and one external member, at least half of them women, each for a term of up to three years.
Written order, real date
Section 4(1) requires a written order of the employer, dated the day it is signed. An order dated before the complaint arrived is a forgery problem, not a cure.
External member with a CV
Section 4(2)(c) wants a person from a women's organisation or someone familiar with sexual harassment issues, and the CV that proves it stays on the committee's file.
Can a committee formed this week hear a complaint about last month, or must it go to the Local Committee?
The Act ties the forum to whether an Internal Committee exists when the complaint is made, not to when the incident happened, so a committee constituted this week can hear a complaint about last month provided the complaint is within the Section 9(1) window. Section 9(1) says the woman may complain "to the Internal Committee if so constituted, or the Local Committee, in case it is not so constituted". Nothing in Sections 9 or 11 confines a committee to incidents after its own birth, and whether the complaint is in time is the committee's call, covered in the guide on POSH complaint time limits.
The position changes if she has already filed with the Local Committee. Section 6(1) gives that committee jurisdiction where no Internal Committee has been constituted, and once it is seized the employer cannot recall the complaint to a committee it forms afterwards. The company's duties then run to the Local Committee: facilities under Section 19(d), attendance of the respondent and witnesses under Section 19(e), information under Section 19(f). Its recommendation still lands on the employer to act on within sixty days under Section 13(4). Bengaluru Urban district's official page confirms a Local Complaints Committee at district level. One more rule in Section 6(1) matters to a founder-led company: where the complaint is against the employer himself, the Local Committee hears it whether or not an Internal Committee exists. The forum is her choice. Say in the acknowledgement that the committee is being constituted and that the Act also gives her the Local Committee, and do not press her to withdraw a complaint already filed there.
What do we owe the complainant, and the respondent, while the inquiry runs?
A safe working environment, confidentiality, the interim measures the committee recommends, and no retaliation. Section 19(a) makes the safe environment the employer's own duty from the day the complaint arrives, so reporting lines and seating can be changed by management before any committee sits, provided the change punishes neither side. The Act gives the employer no power of suspension over the respondent: paid leave pending inquiry is a question for his appointment letter and any service rules.
Once the committee is seized, Section 12 works on her written request: transfer of either party, leave to her of up to three months over her ordinary entitlement, or the rule 8 relief of stopping the respondent from writing her performance report. Section 12(3) obliges the employer to implement the recommendation and report back. Conciliation under Section 10 is available only at her request, only before the inquiry begins, and never with money as its basis. A recorded settlement ends the inquiry unless she reports a breach, when the proviso to Section 11(1) revives it.
The respondent has entitlements too, and ignoring them is how reports fall: a copy of the complaint within seven working days under rule 7(2), ten working days to reply with documents and witnesses under rule 7(3), and under the second proviso to Section 11(1) a copy of the findings so that he can make a representation before the report is finalised. Rule 7(6) bars legal practitioners from representing either side, and rule 7(5) allows an ex parte decision against a party who misses three consecutive hearings, on fifteen days' written notice.
What is the company exposed to for having had no committee?
A fine of up to fifty thousand rupees on a first conviction under Section 26(1)(a), and on a second conviction twice that, with cancellation or non-renewal of the licence or registration the business needs, under Section 26(2). Section 26(1)(b) and (c) attach the same fine to failing to act under Sections 13, 14 and 22 and to contravening any other provision of the Act or Rules. Section 27 keeps the mechanism narrow: cognizance only on a complaint by the aggrieved woman or a person authorised by a committee, and the offence is non-cognizable, tried by a magistrate of the first class. The exposure is real, and it sits with the very person whose complaint the company is now handling.
Section 21 requires the committee's annual report, in the rule 14 form, to the employer and the District Officer. Section 22 requires the employer to carry the number of cases and their disposal in the organisation's annual report, or intimate it to the District Officer. For a company other than a One Person Company or a small company, rule 8(5)(x) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 requires the Board's report to state that the company has complied with the provisions on constituting the Internal Complaints Committee. In Aureliano Fernandes v State of Goa (12 May 2023) the Supreme Court noted a survey finding sixteen of thirty national sports federations without a committee, directed the Union and every State to verify that public bodies had committees composed strictly in terms of the Act, and called an improperly constituted committee "an impediment in conducting an inquiry". The directions bind public institutions in terms, but that sentence is now quoted against private employers in every composition challenge.
Can the respondent or the complainant get the whole thing quashed because we had no committee?
They can get a defective inquiry set aside, and the usual result is a fresh inquiry by a properly constituted committee, not the end of the complaint. Ruchika Singh Chhabra is the template on composition. Aureliano Fernandes is the template on procedure: twelve hearings in a single week, no time to prepare after a lawyer had been refused, and the Supreme Court held the discretion had been "exercised improperly, defying the principles of natural justice" and sent the matter back to the same committee to resume where the haste began. "A fair procedure alone can guarantee a fair outcome" is the standard a private committee is held to as well.
A committee constituted after the complaint is not, by that fact, a defective one. What makes it defective is an unqualified external member, fewer than half women, a quorum below three, a complaint never served, findings never shared, or a report without reasons, and each is inside the company's control this week. The Section 18 appeal, ninety days from the recommendations, and the writ route are in the guide on challenging a POSH report, including the forum problem left by rule 11 of the 2013 Rules, which names an appellate authority under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, an Act the Industrial Relations Code has since repealed.
Where these cases actually turn
What I tell employers in this position is that the committee's file decides the case long before the evidence does. The challenges that succeed begin with the constitution order and the external member's CV, because those two documents can be attacked without touching a fact of the complaint. Speed and fairness are not opposites. A committee that serves the complaint in a week, takes the reply in ten working days, fixes hearings with notice, records who was present and shares its findings before writing the report has done most of what a court looks for. And the founder must step out of the room, because in a forty-person company every informal conversation with either party becomes a paragraph in the writ petition. Advice on constituting the committee and running the inquiry is part of our POSH advisory practice for employers within employment and labour law.
Key takeaway. Constitute the committee this week by a truthfully dated written order, put a qualified external member on it with a CV to prove it, hand over the complaint against a receipt, and keep management out of the room. The Section 26 fine for the past cannot be undone. A fresh inquiry ordered by a court because of what the company does next can.
Three numbers for the HR head's wall for the next three months.
Fifty thousand rupees
The Section 26(1) fine for not constituting the committee, doubled on a second conviction, when the licence or registration also becomes liable to cancellation.
Ninety, ten, sixty
Inquiry completed in ninety days, report to the employer within ten days after that, employer action within sixty days of receiving it.
Her choice of forum
Section 9(1) sends the complaint to the Internal Committee if one exists, otherwise to the Local Committee, and once filed there the employer cannot recall it.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have fewer than ten employees. Do we still need an Internal Committee?
Section 6(1) sends complaints from establishments that have no committee because they have fewer than ten workers to the district Local Committee, so a nine-person company is heard there. Count everyone Section 2(f) calls an employee, including contract staff, trainees and interns, before deciding you are under ten. The thresholds that apply to a small company are collected in which labour code provisions apply to a twelve-person startup.
Our team is remote and several people are contractors or gig workers. Are they covered?
Section 2(f) defines an employee to include anyone working through a contractor, with or without the principal employer's knowledge, and anyone on a temporary, ad hoc, voluntary or trainee basis. Section 2(o)(v) extends the workplace to any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment. The Act does not mention video calls or chat channels in terms, and a committee that refuses a complaint only because the conduct happened online is inviting a challenge it will lose.
The complaint is against the founder himself. Who hears it?
The Local Committee, under Section 6(1), which covers complaints against the employer himself whether or not an Internal Committee exists. The company's duties under Section 19 to provide facilities, information and attendance continue, and the founder should have no role in handling the file.
What is She-Box and should we register on it?
SHe-Box is the Ministry of Women and Child Development's online portal through which any woman may register a complaint of sexual harassment at the workplace, which the portal states is sent directly to the authority having jurisdiction. It also lets the nodal officer of a workplace's head office register the workplace and its Internal Committee. Registration is not a duty the Act itself imposes, but a complaint lodged there will look for your committee, and a registered committee is easier to reach than an unregistered one.
Can a lawyer sit on the committee, and can the parties bring lawyers?
An employee who is a lawyer can be one of the two internal members, since Section 4(2)(b) prefers members with legal knowledge. A lawyer can be the external member only if she or he is from an organisation committed to the cause of women or can show familiarity with sexual harassment issues, which the labour lawyer in Ruchika Singh Chhabra could not. Rule 7(6) bars both parties from being represented by a legal practitioner before the committee, though either may take advice outside it.
Can the complainant and the respondent settle it between themselves?
The Act's only settlement route is conciliation under Section 10, at her request, through the committee, with no monetary settlement as its basis, recorded and forwarded to the employer. A private arrangement outside the committee gives the company no protection the Act recognises and does not stop her complaining within the Section 9 window.
Does constituting the committee now protect us from the Section 26 fine?
No. The offence under Section 26(1)(a) is the failure to constitute a committee, and an order signed after the complaint does not erase the period without one. Prosecution needs a complaint by the aggrieved woman or a person authorised by a committee under Section 27(1), which is a reason to handle her complaint with visible care, not a reason to relax.
What goes in our annual report and in the Board's report?
The committee's own annual report under Section 21 and rule 14 gives the numbers of complaints received, disposed of and pending beyond ninety days, the workshops held and the action taken. Section 22 requires the employer to carry the number of cases and their disposal in the organisation's annual report or to intimate it to the District Officer. Rule 8(5)(x) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 requires a statement in the Board's report that the company has complied with the provisions on constituting the committee, except for a One Person Company or a small company.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
