POSH Act workplace harassment complaint

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) is the principal statute codifying the Vishaka guidelines into a binding workplace-grievance framework. The Act applies to every workplace at which a woman is employed in any capacity — regular, temporary, ad hoc, daily-wage, contractual, probationary, intern, or visiting — and covers harassment in the physical workplace as well as harassment in any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment, including transport provided by the employer. The substantive definition under Section 2(n) covers physical contact and advances, demands or requests for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature; Section 3 prohibits the conduct and Section 9 prescribes the limitation period for filing a written complaint as ninety days from the date of the incident (or the last incident in a series), with extension permitted on sufficient cause shown.

The two-track committee architecture is central. Every employer with ten or more workers is required under Section 4 to constitute an Internal Committee (IC) at each workplace, comprising a Presiding Officer who is a woman employed at a senior level, at least two members from amongst employees committed to the cause of women or having legal knowledge, and one member from an NGO or association committed to the cause of women — at least half the members must be women. Where the workplace has fewer than ten workers, where the complaint is against the employer himself, or where the establishment is in the unorganised sector, the complaint is filed with the Local Committee constituted by the District Officer (typically the District Magistrate) under Section 6 read with Section 7. The inquiry is conducted as a quasi-judicial proceeding with documentary and oral evidence, with statutory confidentiality protections under Section 16, and is to be completed within ninety days; recommendations under Section 13 are binding on the employer. Appeal under Section 18 lies within ninety days to the court or tribunal prescribed under the service rules, or to the District Court where no such tribunal is specified. The criminal parallel runs under the relevant offences of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (in force 1 July 2024) covering sexual harassment, outraging modesty, and stalking as renumbered, with FIR registration through the territorial police station and Section 175(3) BNSS escalation to the Magistrate where the SHO refuses. Civil damages and interim injunction restraining further harassment or retaliation are also available through the District Court.

In Uttarakhand, the District Officer for the purposes of the POSH Act is the District Magistrate of each of the thirteen districts — Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital, Almora, Pauri Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Bageshwar, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, and Udham Singh Nagar — under whom the Local Committee for the district is constituted with the prescribed composition. Where the workplace has a properly-constituted Internal Committee, the first complaint is to that IC; where the IC is not constituted (which is itself a contravention of the Act attracting penalty under Section 26), is improperly constituted, or refuses to register / inquire into the complaint, the complaint shifts to the Local Committee at the District Officer level. The District Officer is also the appellate route for procedural breaches by the IC. The IC and LC proceedings are conducted at the workplace or at the District Officer's office respectively, with statutory confidentiality preserved throughout — disclosure of the complainant's identity, the inquiry record, or the recommendations to any person other than those involved in the inquiry attracts liability under Section 17.

The criminal complaint route at the territorial police station and the cybercrime.gov.in portal (where the harassment is electronic) runs in parallel and is not contingent on the IC / LC outcome — both can be pursued simultaneously. The Section 175(3) BNSS application before the jurisdictional Magistrate is the standard escalation where the SHO refuses to register the FIR. Civil damages and interim-injunction proceedings are filed at the District Court at the place of work or the place of residence of the complainant. The Uttarakhand High Court at Nainital is the writ forum where the IC / LC has acted with mala fides, jurisdictional excess, or perversity, or where a public-sector or fundamental-rights dimension is in issue. Documentation of the harassment — communications, witness contemporaneous accounts, dates and locations, any prior complaint or HR escalation — is decisive at the inquiry stage; the burden under POSH Act is the standard preponderance-of-probabilities applicable to civil / quasi-judicial proceedings, lower than the criminal beyond-reasonable-doubt threshold.

NyaySetu Law's POSH complaint service drafts the written complaint to the Internal Committee (where constituted) or the Local Committee at the District Officer's office (where IC is absent, improperly constituted, complaint is against the employer, or the workplace is in the unorganised sector), prepares the documentary and witness evidence pack, drafts the parallel cybercrime.gov.in / police-station complaint with statutory mapping (BNS provisions on sexual harassment / outraging modesty / stalking as renumbered) where the conduct attracts criminal liability, prepares the Section 18 appeal where the IC / LC recommendation requires challenge, drafts the civil suit for damages and interim injunction restraining retaliation, and prepares the Uttarakhand High Court writ petition where mala fides or jurisdictional excess is alleged. You sign and lodge the complaint with the IC or LC, attend the inquiry, and authorise the parallel criminal and civil filings.