At a glance
| Applies to | Committee | Annual report | Penalty (first default) | Our fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employers with 10 or more employees | Internal Committee at each office or unit | Every calendar year, to employer and District Officer | Fine up to ₹50,000 | From ₹9,499 |
What POSH compliance means
POSH compliance is the set of duties an employer has under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Rules, 2013. The Act protects women at the workplace and puts the duty to prevent and redress harassment on the employer.
In practice, it means five things: a written policy, a properly constituted Internal Committee, awareness and training, a working complaint and inquiry process, and annual reporting. The duties apply even if you never receive a complaint.
Who must comply
Every employer must comply with the Act. What changes with size is where complaints go: to your own Internal Committee, or to the district's Local Committee.
10 or more employees: an Internal Committee
The Act sets up Local Committees for establishments that have not constituted an Internal Committee "due to having less than ten workers". So once a workplace has 10 or more employees, the employer must constitute an Internal Committee.
"Employee" is defined widely in section 2(f). It covers regular, temporary, ad hoc and daily-wage workers, people engaged through a contractor, trainees and others, whether or not they are paid. Count all of them, not only people on your payroll.
The duty applies to every kind of employer: companies, LLPs, partnership firms, proprietorships, trusts, societies, schools and hospitals. Entity type does not matter.
Fewer than 10: the Local Committee
If a workplace has fewer than 10 employees, complaints go to the Local Committee that the District Officer constitutes in each district. The Local Committee also hears complaints against the employer personally.
A small employer still has duties: a safe workplace, awareness, and help for a complainant who approaches the Local Committee. A simple written policy that names the Local Committee route is good practice.
Every office or branch
Where offices or administrative units of a workplace are in different places, the Internal Committee must be constituted at all of them. One committee at head office is not enough.
Example: a company has 15 employees in Kolkata, 12 in Bengaluru and 7 in Delhi. The Kolkata and Bengaluru offices each need their own Internal Committee. For the 7-person Delhi office, confirm the route with us before relying on either committee.
The Internal Committee
The employer constitutes the Internal Committee by an order in writing. Its composition is fixed by section 4(2) of the Act.
| Role | Who | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Presiding Officer | A woman employed at a senior level at the workplace | If none is available, nominated from other offices or units, or from another workplace of the same employer or another organisation |
| Internal members | At least two employees | Preferably committed to the cause of women, or with experience in social work or legal knowledge |
| External member | One person from a non-governmental organisation or association committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment | Must be independent of the employer |
| Gender balance | At least half of all nominated members must be women | Applies to the committee as a whole |
| Term | Not more than three years from nomination | Reconstitute before the term ends |
Under the Rules, a person familiar with sexual harassment issues includes a social worker with at least five years' experience in the field, or a person familiar with labour, service, civil or criminal law. We help you find and brief a suitable external member.
The employer's duties under section 19
Section 19 sets out what every employer must do, whether or not any complaint is filed.
- Provide a safe working environment, including safety from people who come into contact with employees at the workplace.
- Display the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the order constituting the Internal Committee at a conspicuous place.
- Organise workshops and awareness programmes for employees, and orientation for committee members.
- Give the Internal Committee the facilities it needs to deal with complaints and conduct inquiries.
- Help secure the attendance of the respondent and witnesses before the committee.
- Make available information the committee needs for a complaint.
- Help the complainant file a police complaint if she chooses to.
- Treat sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules, and act on it.
- Monitor timely submission of reports by the Internal Committee.
How a complaint is handled
The Act sets clear time limits at each stage. Your policy should repeat them so employees know what to expect.
| Stage | Time limit | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint to the Internal Committee, in writing | Within 3 months of the incident, or of the last incident in a series | s.9(1) |
| Extension for a delayed complaint | Up to 3 more months, with reasons recorded in writing | s.9(1) proviso |
| Inquiry | Complete within 90 days | s.11(4) |
| Inquiry report to the employer | Within 10 days of completing the inquiry | s.13(1) |
| Employer acts on recommendations | Within 60 days of receiving the report | s.13(4) |
| Appeal against recommendations | Within 90 days of the recommendations | s.18(2) |
If the complainant cannot write, the committee must help her put the complaint in writing.
The annual report and the District Officer
The Internal Committee must prepare an annual report every calendar year and submit it to the employer and the District Officer, under section 21. The report is due even if there were no complaints.
Rule 14 sets out what the report must contain:
- Number of complaints of sexual harassment received in the year
- Number of complaints disposed of during the year
- Number of cases pending for more than 90 days
- Number of workshops or awareness programmes carried out
- Nature of action taken by the employer or the District Officer
The Act does not fix one national date for the report. District Officers set the date and format locally, and many ask for it early in the following calendar year. We check the requirement of each district where you have an Internal Committee.
Under section 22, the employer must also include the number of cases filed and their disposal in its own annual report, or tell the District Officer directly if it does not prepare one.
POSH disclosure in a company's Board's report
A company meets its section 22 duty through the Board's report. Under the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014, the Board's report carries POSH disclosures, and a 2025 amendment to those Rules extended them to complaint figures for the year.
We draft the disclosure from the Internal Committee's records so the Board's report, the annual report to the District Officer and your registers match. This ties into your annual ROC filing and wider MCA compliance.
LLPs and firms do not prepare a Board's report, so they intimate the figures to the District Officer where no organisation annual report exists.
Penalties for non-compliance
Section 26 provides a fine of up to ₹50,000 if an employer fails to constitute an Internal Committee, fails to act under sections 13, 14 or 22, or contravenes any other provision of the Act or Rules.
A repeat offence is punishable with twice the punishment that might have been imposed on a first conviction. It can also lead to cancellation of the employer's licence, or withdrawal or non-renewal of the registration or approval needed to run the business.
Companies also face penalties under the Companies Act, 2013 for a Board's report that does not contain the required disclosures.
SHe-Box
SHe-Box is the Ministry of Women and Child Development's online portal for sexual harassment complaints. It is designed as a central repository of Internal Committees and Local Committees, covering private sector workplaces once they on-board the portal.
A complaint can be registered on SHe-Box and is routed to the relevant committee. On-boarding your workplace does not replace your own committee, policy or annual report. We help you complete the workplace details on the portal as part of set-up.
How we set up POSH compliance
We follow six steps and give you a document for each one, so the next inspection or audit has a clear trail.
- Workplace mapping. We list every office and unit, count employees as section 2(f) defines them, and mark where an Internal Committee is required.
- Committee constitution. We identify the Presiding Officer and internal members with you, help you find a suitable external member and draft the written constitution order.
- Policy. We draft a POSH policy that matches the Act and Rules, with the complaint route, timelines, confidentiality and the display notice.
- Awareness and committee training. We run the awareness session for employees and the orientation for committee members, and keep attendance records.
- Registers and SHe-Box. We set up the complaint register, the committee minutes format and the workplace details on SHe-Box.
- Annual reporting. We prepare the Rule 14 annual report for the District Officer and, for companies, the Board's report disclosure.
Documents we need
- List of offices and units with employee headcount at each, including contract staff and trainees
- Names and designations of the proposed Presiding Officer and internal members
- CV and consent of the external member, if you already have one
- Existing HR policy, code of conduct or earlier POSH policy
- Entity details and authorised signatory
- For annual reporting: the complaint register, committee minutes and training records for the calendar year
Fees
Our professional fee for POSH compliance starts at ₹9,499. There is no government fee under the POSH Act.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Regikart professional fee: POSH compliance set-up for a single workplace | From ₹9,499 |
| Additional offices, annual reporting, training sessions and external member arrangements | Quoted on scope |
| Government fee | No government fee |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 21 September 2026.
Mistakes that fail an inspection
These are the gaps we find most often when we review an existing set-up.
- One committee for all branches. The Act requires a committee at every office or unit located at different places.
- No external member, or an external member with no relevant background.
- A committee without a senior woman as Presiding Officer, or with fewer than half women members.
- A lapsed term. Members serve up to three years; reconstitute before the term ends.
- No annual report in a year with no complaints. The report is still due.
- Counting only payroll staff when deciding whether the 10-employee threshold is met.
- A policy nobody has seen. Display the notice and run the awareness session.
- Missing the Board's report disclosure in a company.
Why employers use Regikart for POSH
POSH sits between company law and employment practice. Our CS team handles both the committee paperwork and the company-law disclosure.
- Reviewed by a Company Secretary who drafts the constitution order, the policy and the Board's report disclosure.
- One trail of documents for the committee, training and annual report.
- Linked services: payroll services, shop and establishment registration, PF registration, ESIC registration, contract labour licence and labour code compliance.
- 250+ clients served from Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru.