Internal Committee (IC) Under the POSH Act: Constitution, Members, Duties and Compliance

The Internal Committee is where POSH compliance succeeds or fails. A defective committee does not merely look untidy on a compliance checklist: Indian High Courts have set aside entire inquiries because the committee that conducted them was not constituted as the Act requires. This guide covers how to get it right, and the specific errors that make committees vulnerable.

What is an Internal Committee?

The Internal Committee — often still called the Internal Complaints Committee or ICC, and sometimes loosely the "POSH committee" — is the forum created by the POSH Act to receive and inquire into complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace.

It is not a general grievance committee, an ethics committee or a disciplinary committee wearing a second hat. It has a specific statutory mandate, a prescribed composition, defined powers and fixed timelines. It cannot be dissolved for convenience once a complaint is filed, and its recommendations bind the employer to act within sixty days.

Where an establishment has fewer than ten workers, or where the complaint is against the employer, the forum is the Local Committee constituted by the District Officer under Section 6 — not an internal one.

When must an organisation constitute an IC?

As soon as a workplace employs ten or more workers. Two points routinely trip employers up.

The headcount is inclusive. It covers regular, temporary, ad hoc, daily-wage, contractual, probationary, apprentice and intern engagements — paid or unpaid — and workers engaged through a contractor. It is not limited to employees on the company's payroll.

The obligation attaches to each workplace. Section 4 provides 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 must be constituted at all administrative units or offices. A single committee at the registered office does not, by itself, discharge the obligation for a branch in another city.

The committee is constituted by an order in writing issued by the employer. That order is a compliance document in its own right — it must be dated, must name the members and their roles, and must be displayed at a conspicuous place in the workplace under Section 19(b).

Composition of the Internal Committee

The Presiding Officer

The Act requires a woman employed at a senior level at the workplace. Where the organisation genuinely has no senior woman employee — common in small manufacturing units and early-stage startups — the Act permits nomination from another office or administrative unit of the same employer, or from another workplace or organisation. Use that route rather than appointing a junior employee and hoping it passes.

The external member

This is the seat most often filled badly, and the one most often litigated.

The external member must come from an NGO or association committed to the cause of women, or be a person familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment. The POSH Rules describe the profile expected of such a person — including a social worker with at least five years' experience in work directed at the empowerment of women and particularly at addressing workplace sexual harassment, or a person familiar with labour, service, civil or criminal law.

Under Rule 3, the external member is entitled to an allowance of ₹200 per day for attending proceedings of the Internal Committee, together with reimbursement of travel costs, payable by the employer. That is a statutory floor from 2013 — engaging a qualified practitioner at professional rates is entirely permissible and is what most organisations do.

Courts have taken the qualification seriously. In Ruchika Singh Chhabra v. Air France India, the Delhi High Court found the external member did not meet the statutory criterion and directed the employer to reconstitute the committee. In Jaya Kodate v. Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, the Bombay High Court held that a committee not constituted in accordance with Section 4 was defective, with consequences for the inquiry conducted by it.

Disqualification and removal

A Presiding Officer or member must be removed, and the vacancy filled by fresh nomination, if the person contravenes the confidentiality obligation under Section 16, is convicted of an offence or has an inquiry into an offence pending, has been found guilty in a disciplinary proceeding or has a disciplinary proceeding pending, or has so abused their position as to render continuance prejudicial to the public interest.

Duties, powers and functions of the IC

• Receive and acknowledge complaints of sexual harassment
• Provide the respondent a copy of the complaint within seven working days
• Attempt conciliation only if the aggrieved woman requests it, and never on the basis of a monetary settlement
• Conduct the inquiry in accordance with the principles of natural justice
• Recommend interim relief where warranted — such as transfer of the aggrieved woman or the respondent, leave of up to three months, or restraining the respondent from reporting on her work
• Complete the inquiry within ninety days
• Submit the inquiry report to the employer within ten days of completing the inquiry
• Recommend action, and compensation where harassment is proved
• Prepare the annual report for each calendar year under Section 21 and Rule 14
• Maintain confidentiality throughout and afterwards

For specified purposes — summoning and enforcing attendance of any person and examining them on oath, and requiring the discovery and production of documents — the Committee has the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

A minimum of three members, including the Presiding Officer, must be present during the inquiry proceedings. Parties are not permitted to be represented by a legal practitioner at any stage of the proceedings before the Committee.

The inquiry process, step by step

Confidentiality

Section 16 prohibits publication or disclosure of the contents of the complaint, the identity and addresses of the aggrieved woman, the respondent and witnesses, and the conciliation or inquiry proceedings, recommendations and action taken. Breach attracts penalty under the applicable service rules, and the POSH Rules provide for recovery of ₹5,000 as penalty from the person responsible.

Confidentiality is not absolute against the parties themselves: the respondent must be given the substance of the allegation in order to defend, and both parties receive a copy of the inquiry report. Manage it deliberately — issue written confidentiality undertakings to members and witnesses at the outset, restrict file access, and avoid discussing cases in HR channels or open email threads.

Documentation the IC should maintain

• The written order constituting the committee, and every subsequent reconstitution order
• Consent, appointment and confidentiality undertakings from each member, including the external member
• Complaint register with dates received, disposed and pending
• Case files: complaint, acknowledgement, notices, replies, minutes of hearings, evidence, inquiry report, recommendations, action taken
• Records of interim relief granted
• Training and orientation records with dates and attendance
• Annual reports and filing acknowledgements
• Display evidence — photograph of the notice board showing penal consequences and the IC order

Common mistakes while constituting an IC

• No written order. An announcement or an intranet post is not a constitution order.
• A male Presiding Officer. The Presiding Officer must be a woman employed at a senior level.
• No external member, or an external member who does not meet the statutory description — the single most common defect.
• A conflicted external member — the company's retained lawyer, a service vendor or a person connected to management.
• Fewer than 50% women after a member resigns and is replaced without recounting.
• Expired three-year tenure, with the committee continuing on paper.
• One committee for the whole group, with branches in other cities uncovered.
• Reporting lines that compromise independence — an IC member who directly reports to the respondent.
• The committee constituted only after a complaint arrives. A committee created reactively invites the argument that the inquiry was not conducted by a validly pre-existing forum.
• No IC orientation. Section 19 requires orientation programmes for members; an untrained committee makes procedural errors that later void its findings.

What happens if the IC is not properly constituted?

Three consequences follow, and they compound.

Statutory. Failure to constitute an Internal Committee under Section 4 attracts a fine of up to ₹50,000 under Section 26. A repeat offence can attract twice the punishment, and cancellation or non-renewal of the licence or registration required to carry on business.

Procedural. An inquiry conducted by a defectively constituted committee is open to challenge. If it is set aside, the employer may have to restart the process — often years later, with witnesses gone and evidence stale — while any disciplinary action taken on the strength of that inquiry becomes vulnerable.

Enforcement and commercial. Following the Supreme Court's directions in Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa and the orders that have followed it, States and District Officers have been surveying whether public and private workplaces have actually constituted Internal Committees. Separately, investors, acquirers and large customers now test this in diligence. "We have a committee, but it is not compliant" is a finding that surfaces at the worst possible time.

IC compliance checklist

Who should consider professional assistance?

• Organisations with no suitable senior woman employee to act as Presiding Officer
• Employers who need a qualified, independent external member and have no network to source one
• Companies expanding into a second or third location and needing committee coverage designed properly
• Committees facing their first live complaint with no prior inquiry experience
• Employers who have discovered that an existing committee is defective and need to reconstitute without disturbing a pending matter

Frequently asked questions