Common questions about POSH compliance
Answers to questions we hear most often from HR teams and in-house counsel on IC constitution, SHe-Box registration, training, timelines, and the statutory framework.
Do we need an Internal Committee?
Yes, if you have 10 or more employees. POSH Act 2013, s.4, requires organisations at or above this threshold to constitute an IC by written order. Employers with fewer than 10 employees are served by a Local Committee at the district level instead.
Can a lawyer serve as our external IC member instead of an NGO?
Yes, if they're familiar with sexual harassment matters. Section 4(2)(c) allows an external member from an NGO committed to the cause of women, or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment. Being an advocate isn't enough on its own: the Delhi High Court has held that the Rules' wider "labour, service, civil or criminal law" description (rule 4) applies only to Local Committees. See who can be your external member.
Is POSH trainer certification government-recognised?
No. No government or statutory body in India certifies POSH trainers — every such certificate is private. Our trainers hold the NIST certification (National Institute of Skills Training), a private mark, which you can ask us to verify.
Is SHe-Box registration mandatory for us?
In practice, yes. The Ministry of Women and Child Development's SHe-Box FAQ says onboarding is mandatory for all workplaces, including private ones. The Act itself doesn't mention SHe-Box, but the Supreme Court has directed States to put their survey data on public and private workplaces onto the portal, and Delhi has directed private organisations to register. If a regulator licenses you, check its circulars too. Details and sources: is SHe-Box registration mandatory?
We have 12 employees — do we need an IC?
Yes. Twelve employees exceeds the 10-employee threshold in s.4, so you must constitute an IC by written order — a Presiding Officer (a senior woman employee), at least 2 employee members, and 1 external member, with at least half the committee women.
What is the complaint timeline?
A complaint may be filed within 3 months of the incident (s.9), extendable by a further 3 months. The IC must complete its inquiry within 90 days (s.11), and the employer must act on the report within 60 days (s.13).
When is the annual IC report due?
The Act and Rules prescribe no due date; the report covers each calendar year (s.21). District Officers set their own dates, and they differ. Gurugram, for example, set 28 February 2026 for calendar-2025 reports. Confirm your District Officer's instruction. See annual report filing.
What does an external IC member cost?
For a member appointed from a non-governmental organisation, the POSH Rules (rule 3) require the employer to pay ₹200 per day for IC proceedings, plus travel costs. That statutory allowance is separate from our professional fee for identifying, vetting, and appointing the member — see pricing.
What is the two-roster firewall?
We keep two disjoint rosters: advocates empanelled as external members on client Internal Committees, and advocates arranged for employers on live complaints. No individual appears on both, so the person sitting on an inquiry is never the person who acted for the employer in it. See the panel.
Can we deliver training online, or must it be onsite?
Both work. Online awareness and IC-capacity sessions suit distributed teams and are available pan-India; onsite delivery is centred on Delhi NCR and cities within about 300 km of Noida, and available elsewhere in India as required. Either mode is designed to meet the s.19 awareness obligation.
How do we verify your panel members?
Use our verification page to request an advocate's Bar Council enrolment number or a trainer's roll number, along with the awarding body's own verification procedure, so you can confirm it independently.
Why are most of the names on your panel masked?
Because the advocates on our panel do not advertise — Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules restricts an advocate from advertising or soliciting work, and we are not going to put a practitioner's licence in question to decorate a page. It costs you nothing. Section 4(2)(c) gives you two ways to fill the external seat, and the alternative is harder to check: India maintains no statutory register of social workers, so there is no roll to test a social worker's standing against and no professional body to complain to afterwards. Either way, the external member must be familiar with sexual harassment matters — a professional title alone does not qualify anyone. An advocate is the opposite — a permanent entry on a State Bar Council roll we neither control nor can edit, and a disciplinary jurisdiction under s.35 of the Advocates Act 1961 behind it. We publish every advocate's council and year of enrolment on the panel, and the full name and enrolment number of whoever is proposed for your Internal Committee reaches you before you appoint them, so you check it against the public roll at the point where checking still changes the decision.
Talent Crafters was founded in 2026 — is the team as new as the firm?
No. The firm is new; the practitioners are not. Every advocate on our register was enrolled with a State Bar Council between 2005 and 2018 — close to a decade in practice apiece, more than two decades for the longest-serving, and every one of them at the bar years before Talent Crafters existed. We publish each advocate's council and year of enrolment on the panel, and send the full name and enrolment number of the advocate proposed for your committee before you appoint them — so the years in practice are a figure you can check against the public roll rather than take on trust. Our trainers came to POSH work after ten to twelve years each in HR, learning and development, and workplace facilitation, and have delivered POSH and workplace training since 2024. That earlier decade is a claim we make rather than a record you can pull, and we mark it as one, because no Indian awarding body certifies a trainer's prior career.
What if we do not comply?
A first contravention attracts a penalty of up to ₹50,000 (s.26(1)). On a repeat offence, government may cancel a licence, registration, or approval (s.26(2)), and POSH disclosure is also required in the Board's Report under the Companies Act 2013.
Can one external member serve on more than one IC?
Yes. Neither the Act nor the Rules restrict an external member to one organisation; each appointment stands on its own written order, and with us each comes with its own confidentiality undertaking. This is separate from our two-roster firewall, which keeps external members and case counsel on disjoint lists.
How often must the IC meet?
Frequency depends on complaint activity and your organisation's structure; the Act does not prescribe a fixed meeting schedule, though a committee must convene promptly once a complaint is received to meet the s.11 inquiry window.
What is the difference between an Internal Committee and a Local Committee?
An Internal Committee is constituted by the employer at each workplace with 10 or more workers (s.4). A Local Committee is constituted by the District Officer for the district (s.6) and hears complaints from workplaces with fewer than 10 workers, and complaints against the employer itself.
Does POSH apply to employees working from home?
The Act doesn't mention remote work, but "workplace" includes any place visited in the course of employment and a dwelling place (s.2(o)). The prudent reading is that remote work is covered, and your policy should say so. See who the POSH Act covers.
Can men file a complaint under the POSH Act?
No. The Act protects women (s.2(a), s.3). Many employers adopt a gender-neutral internal policy so that others have a route to complain, but that is the employer's choice, not a requirement of the Act.
Where to go next
The composition arithmetic at the smallest size that clears the s.4 threshold.
The three statutory clocks that start running, and where timelines slip.
Registration is a documents check, separate from constituting your IC.
What rule 8(5)(x) now requires for FY 2025-26, and the CS/CA checklist for AOC-4.
For CAs and Company Secretaries: the details to furnish, draft wording, and a free two-page PDF.
Why the surveys are happening, what to send, and what to fix before you reply.
Check this against the record
Everything on this page rests on the statute, the Rules, or a reported judgment. These are the originals — links open on the issuing body's own site.
The Government of India repository carrying the bare text of the POSH Act 2013 and its Rules.
The Ministry of Women & Child Development portal for IC registration and complaint tracking.
The ministry administering the POSH Act 2013 and the SHe-Box portal.
Rule 36 reproduced in full — "An Advocate shall not solicit works or advertise, either directly or indirectly" — published by the Bar Council of Kerala, a State Bar Council constituted under the same Act.