What to do now
- Check your policy against the checklist below, clause by clause.
- Make sure it names your current Committee, with members' contact details. Rule 13(e) requires the names and contact details of all members to be declared.
- Tailor it to each office, since each has its own Committee (s.4(1)).
- Circulate it to everyone it covers, including contract staff, and at induction, and keep a record that you did.
- Review it whenever the Committee changes, and at least once a year.
What the law makes mandatory
Neither the Act nor the Rules prescribe the policy's contents clause by clause. What they do make mandatory is narrower, and a policy has to carry it or point to it. Rule 13 is addressed to "every employer", with no headcount threshold.
- A written policy, widely disseminated. An "internal policy or charter or resolution or declaration" for the prohibition, prevention and redressal of sexual harassment (POSH Rules, rule 13(a)).
- The Committee's names and contact details. Every member, declared (rule 13(e)).
- Two notices on display. The penal consequences of sexual harassment, and the order constituting the Internal Committee, at a conspicuous place in the workplace (s.19(b)).
- Training for employees and the Committee. Awareness programmes for employees, and orientation and capacity-building for Committee members (s.19(c); rule 13(b)–(d)), using the State Government's modules where they exist (rule 13(f)).
- The statutory process, unchanged. The complaint window (s.9), the inquiry and its 90-day limit (s.11), interim relief (s.12), action on the report within 60 days (s.13(4)), confidentiality (s.16) and appeal (s.18) apply whatever the policy says. A policy that states different time limits doesn't change them; it only misleads the people relying on it.
Everything else in the checklist below is good practice: it is what makes those duties usable by the person who needs to complain.
The clause-by-clause checklist
| Clause | What it should say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose and commitment | The organisation prohibits, prevents and redresses sexual harassment, and aims for a safe, respectful workplace | s.3(1); r.13(a) |
| Who is covered | Every woman at the workplace, employed or not; employees in the wide sense, including contract staff, trainees and apprentices | s.2(a), s.2(f) |
| What is a workplace | Offices, plus places visited for work, employer transport, and remote and home working | s.2(o) |
| What is sexual harassment | The five listed behaviours, and the circumstances that can amount to it (promises, threats, hostile environment, humiliating treatment) | s.2(n), s.3(2) |
| The Internal Committee | Members' names, roles and contact details; the external member; terms of office | s.4; r.13(e) |
| How to complain | In writing to the Committee within 3 months (extendable by 3), with help to write it down; who else may complain on her behalf | s.9; r.6 |
| Conciliation | Only at the complainant's request, before inquiry, never with money as the basis | s.10 |
| The inquiry | Copy to the respondent in 7 working days, reply in 10, natural justice, quorum of 3, no lawyers for the parties, completion in 90 days | s.11; r.7 |
| Interim relief | Transfer, up to 3 months' extra leave, or restraining the respondent from reporting on her work, on her written request | s.12; r.8 |
| Outcome and action | Report within 10 days; possible actions (apology, warning, withholding promotion or increments, termination, counselling, community service); employer acts within 60 days | s.13; r.9 |
| False or malicious complaints | Action only for knowingly false complaints or forged evidence, never for mere inability to prove a complaint | s.14 |
| Confidentiality | What can't be disclosed, and the penalty for breach | s.16, s.17; r.12 |
| Appeal | Within 90 days of the recommendations | s.18 |
| The Local Committee | When a complaint goes to the district's Local Committee instead, e.g. against the employer itself | s.6 |
| Criminal law | The complainant's right to a police complaint, and the employer's duty to assist | s.19(g); BNS s.75 |
| No retaliation | No adverse treatment for complaining or taking part in an inquiry | Good practice, supported by s.3(2) |
| Awareness and training | Regular employee awareness; orientation and capacity-building for Committee members | s.19(c); r.13(b)–(d) |
| Display and reporting | Notice of the penal consequences and the Committee order on display; the Committee's annual report | s.19(b); s.21 |
Why a downloaded template isn't enough
Templates are a reasonable starting point, but three things usually go wrong. They name nobody, so employees can't tell who to approach; rule 13(e) requires members' names and contact details to be declared. They describe one Committee for a company with several offices, when each office needs its own (s.4(1)). And they copy the old IPC section numbers; since 1 July 2024 the criminal offence of sexual harassment is in s.75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Things to decide, not copy
- Complaints by people the Act doesn't protect. The Act protects women. Whether your policy also gives men and others a route to complain is your choice; if it does, keep that route clearly separate from the statutory process.
- Service rules. Where the respondent is an employee, the inquiry follows your service rules if you have them (s.11(1)), so make sure your policy and conduct rules agree.
- Vendors and contractors. How the policy reaches outsourced staff, and what your contracts require of suppliers. See who the POSH Act covers.
- Languages. A policy staff can't read isn't widely disseminated in any real sense.
Before you sign it off
A short check of the finished document. Each line maps to a row of the checklist above.
- ☐ Names every current Committee member, with contact details, for each office.
- ☐ Covers contract staff, trainees, apprentices, interns and visitors, not just payroll employees.
- ☐ Defines sexual harassment in the terms of s.2(n) and s.3(2).
- ☐ Explains how to complain, in writing, within 3 months, and how that can be extended.
- ☐ States the 90-day inquiry limit and the employer's 60-day action window.
- ☐ Explains interim relief and the right of appeal within 90 days.
- ☐ Covers confidentiality and the penalty for breaching it.
- ☐ Refers to s.75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, not s.354A of the IPC.
- ☐ Says how and when awareness and Committee training run.
- ☐ Exists in the languages your staff use, with a record of when and how it was circulated.
- ☐ Carries a review date and the name of the person who owns it.
Where we come in
We draft or review your policy against this checklist, tailor it to each office and its Committee, align it with your service rules, and translate it into the languages your staff use. We then cover it in awareness sessions. Drafting the policy is part of Internal Committee formation, issued together with the Committee's written appointment order, and we cover the policy in POSH training for employees. We work onsite across Delhi NCR and cities within about 300 km of Noida, anywhere in India as required, and online.
Frequently asked
What is a POSH policy?
A POSH policy is an employer's written internal policy for the prohibition, prevention and redressal of sexual harassment at the workplace. POSH Rules, rule 13(a) requires every employer to formulate one and disseminate it widely.
Is a POSH policy mandatory?
Yes. POSH Rules, rule 13(a) requires every employer to formulate and widely disseminate an internal policy for the prohibition, prevention and redressal of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Do employers with fewer than 10 employees need a POSH policy?
Yes. Rule 13 applies to every employer, with no headcount threshold. The difference is where complaints go: below 10 workers there is no Internal Committee, so the policy points to the district's Local Committee (s.6(1)).
What must a POSH policy contain by law?
The Rules prescribe no clause list. The mandatory points are the written policy itself (rule 13(a)), the names and contact details of Committee members (rule 13(e)), the s.19(b) display of penal consequences and the Committee order, training (s.19(c); rule 13(b)–(d)), and a process that matches the Act's own time limits.
Can you draft our POSH policy?
Yes. We draft it as part of Internal Committee formation (₹10,000–50,000, one-time), together with the Committee's written appointment order, tailored to each office and translated where needed. To have an existing policy reviewed, send it to us.
Is there an official POSH policy format?
No. Neither the Act nor the Rules prescribe a template. The policy should reflect what the Act requires; the checklist above maps each clause to its source.
Must the policy name the Internal Committee members?
Rule 13(e) requires the employer to declare the names and contact details of all Committee members. Putting them in the policy, or in a notice it points to, is the simplest way to do that.
How often should we update the policy?
Whenever the Committee's membership changes, and on a regular review, at least once a year.
Should the policy mention the IPC or the BNS?
The BNS. Since 1 July 2024, the criminal offence of sexual harassment is in s.75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced s.354A of the Indian Penal Code.