The checklist in brief
- Get the written order constituting the Internal Committee at every office or unit with 10 or more workers (s.4(1)), and check no member's term has run past three years (s.4(3)).
- Get the three counts for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 from the Committee's complaint register: received, disposed of, pending for more than ninety days. Zero is a number; a blank is a missing disclosure.
- Don't copy the calendar-year figures from the Committee's own annual report under s.21 of the POSH Act. The periods differ.
- Get a named person to confirm Maternity Benefit Act compliance for the clause (xiii) statement.
- Get the headcount as on 31 March 2026, split female, male and transgender, for the e-form.
- Check the form. The Extract of Board Report goes with every AOC-4 and AOC-4 NBFC, small companies and One Person Companies included. AOC-4 XBRL filers attach the Board's Report instead.
- Match every statement to a record the client can produce before the Board signs.
The PDF expands these into nineteen questions, each with the section or rule it rests on, and adds a sheet to send the client.
Download the checklist (PDF, two pages)
What POSH details go in the Board's Report and AOC-4 for FY 2025-26?
Six items, in force since 14 July 2025 under the Companies (Accounts) Second Amendment Rules, 2025 (G.S.R. 357(E)). Five sit in the text of the Board's Report. The sixth, the headcount, is a field of the e-form.
| Detail | Required by | Period | Record it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statement that the company has complied with the provisions on constituting the Internal Complaints Committee | Companies (Accounts) Rules, r.8(5)(x) | Financial year | The written order constituting the Committee at each office (s.4(1)) |
| Number of complaints of sexual harassment received in the year | r.8(5)(x)(a) | 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | Committee's complaint register |
| Number of complaints disposed of during the year | r.8(5)(x)(b) | 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | Committee's reports under s.13 |
| Number of cases pending for more than ninety days | r.8(5)(x)(c) | 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | Register, measured against the s.11(4) 90-day limit |
| Statement on compliance with the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 | r.8(5)(xiii) | Financial year | HR and payroll, confirmed by a named person |
| Number of employees: female, male, transgender | e-form Extract of Board Report, filed with AOC-4 under r.12(1C) | As on 31 March 2026 | Payroll or HRMS |
The headcount is the one that gets missed, because it is not a clause of rule 8(5). A Board's Report can satisfy the rule and the filing can still be incomplete if nobody has pulled the number. What changed in 2025, and why, is set out in POSH disclosure in the Board's Report.
Draft wording for the POSH disclosure
Illustrations to adapt, not prescribed text. The rules prescribe what must be stated, not the words. The figures below are invented. The Board settles its own wording on what the company's records show.
| Case | Illustrative wording |
|---|---|
| Committee in place, no complaints | The Company has complied with the provisions relating to the constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. During the financial year: (a) complaints of sexual harassment received: 0; (b) complaints disposed of: 0; (c) cases pending for more than ninety days: 0. |
| Committee in place, complaints in the year | The same compliance statement, followed by: (a) complaints of sexual harassment received: 2; (b) complaints disposed of: 1; (c) cases pending for more than ninety days: 0. |
| Fewer than ten workers | The Company had fewer than ten workers at its workplace during the financial year and was therefore not required to constitute an Internal Committee under the Act. No complaint of sexual harassment was received during the year. |
| Maternity Benefit Act | The Company has complied with the provisions relating to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. |
The three numbers don't have to add up. In the second illustration one complaint was received late in the year and is still inside the ninety days the Committee has to finish its inquiry (s.11(4)), so it is neither disposed of nor pending for more than ninety days.
What if the company has fewer than 10 employees?
An Internal Committee is required at a workplace with 10 or more workers. Below that, the employer doesn't constitute one, and complaints from the workplace go to the Local Committee the District Officer constitutes for the district (s.6(1)). The Board's Report should say that plainly instead of claiming a Committee exists, as in the third illustration above. Check the count office by office: a company with four people at head office and fourteen at a plant needs a Committee at the plant.
Does it apply to private, small and One Person Companies?
Rule 8(5) applies to the Board's Report of every company that prepares one under s.134, private or public. Small companies and One Person Companies may prepare an abridged report under rule 8A, which the 2025 amendment did not change. That does not take them out of the e-form: MCA's FAQs treat the Extract of Board Report as mandatory with every AOC-4 and AOC-4 NBFC, and the form asks whether the company is an OPC or a small company. Declare the status and complete whatever the form then asks. Since 1 December 2025 a small company is one with paid-up capital up to ₹10 crore and turnover up to ₹100 crore, so many clients now fall in this group.
Financial year or calendar year?
Financial year for the Board's Report. The confusion comes from the other POSH report: the Internal Committee prepares its own annual report under the POSH Act and submits it to the employer and the District Officer (s.21), and that one runs by calendar year. Rule 14 of the POSH Rules sets its contents: complaints received, disposed of and pending over ninety days, awareness programmes held, and action taken. The employer separately includes the number of cases filed and their disposal in the organisation's annual report (s.22).
So the calendar-2025 figures can't be copied into the FY 2025-26 Board's Report; recount from the register. A client that has never submitted the s.21 report usually has no register to count from. The Act fixes no national due date for that report; districts set their own. See POSH annual report filing.
Signs that a client isn't POSH compliant
- There is no written order constituting the Committee, or there is one for head office only (s.4(1)).
- A member was nominated more than three years ago and never renominated (s.4(3)).
- No external member is named in the order (s.4(2)(c)).
- Nobody can produce a complaint register, so the three counts have nothing behind them.
- The counts have been copied from a calendar-year report, or left blank where they should say zero.
- The Committee has never sent an annual report to the District Officer (s.21).
Each of these is worth raising before the Board's Report is signed (s.134(6)). A report that misses required content exposes the company to a penalty of ₹3,00,000 and every officer in default to ₹50,000 (s.134(8)). Not having a Committee at all is a separate exposure under the POSH Act: a fine of up to ₹50,000 (s.26(1)). See the penalty for not having an Internal Committee.
When is AOC-4 due for FY 2025-26?
The AGM falls within six months of the year-end (s.96) and AOC-4 is due within 30 days of the AGM (s.137). For a 31 March year-end with the AGM held at the end of September 2026, that puts the filing at the end of October 2026, unless the MCA extends the date. A Committee constituted now can't be backdated, so the earlier a gap is found, the more room the Board has to deal with it properly.
What is in the PDF
| Page | What it is | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · The checklist | Nineteen questions in five groups: the Internal Committee, the three complaint counts, the other statements, the POSH Act's own annual report, and what to settle before the Board signs. | You, when reviewing the draft Board's Report |
| 2 · The client data sheet | The details the company has to furnish, as blanks to fill in, with a line for the person confirming them to sign and date. | The client's HR head or director, returned to you |
Page two is a working sheet we prepared. It isn't a form prescribed by the MCA or under the POSH Act, and it doesn't replace the e-form.
Frequently asked
What POSH details are required in AOC-4?
The e-form Extract of Board Report, filed with AOC-4 and AOC-4 NBFC, carries the Board's Report content, which includes the Internal Committee compliance statement and the complaints received, disposed of and pending for more than ninety days. It also asks for the number of female, male and transgender employees at the close of the financial year.
What should the Board's Report say if there were no POSH complaints?
Make the Internal Committee compliance statement and state zero against each of the three counts: complaints received, complaints disposed of, and cases pending for more than ninety days. Don't leave a count blank or omit it.
What does a company with fewer than 10 employees write in the POSH disclosure?
An Internal Committee is required only at a workplace with 10 or more workers; below that, complaints go to the district's Local Committee under s.6(1) of the POSH Act. The Board's Report should state that the company was not required to constitute a Committee and that no complaint was received, if that is the case.
Is the POSH disclosure applicable to small companies and One Person Companies?
They may prepare an abridged Board's Report under rule 8A, which the 2025 amendment did not change. They still file the e-form Extract of Board Report with AOC-4, which MCA treats as mandatory in all cases, and should complete whatever it asks once their status is declared.
Are the POSH complaint numbers in the Board's Report for the financial year or the calendar year?
The financial year. The Internal Committee's own annual report to the District Officer under s.21 of the POSH Act runs by calendar year, so its figures can't be copied across. Recount from the complaint register for 1 April to 31 March.
Do companies filing AOC-4 XBRL file the Extract of Board Report?
No. MCA's FAQs say the Extract does not apply to AOC-4 XBRL filings. Those companies attach the authenticated financial statements, including the full Board's Report with its POSH disclosure.
The company has several offices. How are the POSH complaints counted?
Each office or administrative unit with 10 or more workers has its own Internal Committee under s.4(1). The Board's Report is one report for the company, so add the counts from every Committee, branch offices as well as head office.
What records should a CA or CS ask the client for?
The written order constituting each Internal Committee with members' nomination dates, the complaint register for the financial year, the Committee's reports on closed complaints, a named confirmation of Maternity Benefit Act compliance, and the payroll headcount by gender as on 31 March.
Is the checklist free to use?
Yes. Download it, use it on any engagement and send page two to clients. There is no sign-up and we don't collect your email address to release it.
Is the client data sheet an MCA form?
No. It is a working sheet we prepared to collect the details the Board's Report and the e-form Extract of Board Report need. It isn't prescribed by the MCA or under the POSH Act.
If I refer a client, do you take over the filing?
No. We don't prepare Board's Reports or file AOC-4, and we don't offer company secretarial or audit services. We put the Internal Committee and its records in order; the filing stays with you.