POSH compliance — IC management, case tracking, annual return
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 requires every employer with 10+ employees to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee, track each complaint through its full inquiry lifecycle, and file an annual return every January. OpticompBharat automates all of it.
What POSH requires
Mandatory obligations under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 for all workplaces with 10 or more employees.
Internal Complaints Committee (IC)
Every workplace with 10+ employees must constitute an IC with minimum 4 members — 1 presiding officer (senior woman employee), at least 2 other employees, and 1 external member from an NGO or with POSH expertise. At least 50% of IC members must be women. IC tenure is 3 years; reconstitution before expiry is mandatory.
Complaint & inquiry process
Once a complaint is received, the IC must complete its inquiry within 60 days. Recommendations to the employer must be submitted within 10 days of completing the inquiry. The employer must act on those recommendations within 60 days.
Annual report to District Officer
By January 31 every year, the employer must file an annual report with the District Officer stating: number of complaints received, disposed, pending beyond 90 days, and training or awareness sessions conducted during the year.
Awareness & training
An annual awareness workshop is mandatory for all employees. Every new employee must be informed of the POSH policy at the time of joining. IC members must also be trained on inquiry procedures.
Penalties for non-compliance
Non-compliance with POSH carries escalating financial and business penalties.
₹50,000
First offence
Fine for failing to constitute IC, non-filing of annual report, or other first violations
₹1,00,000
Repeat offence
Double the fine for repeat violations; non-constitution of IC is treated as a repeat offence from the second notice
Licence
Cancellation risk
Repeat offenders risk cancellation or non-renewal of business licence or registration; directors and officers can be personally liable
What OpticompBharat tracks
Every deadline, every IC member, every complaint — managed in one place so nothing slips through.
- IC member roster with role, gender, and tenure-expiry alerts
- Complaint registration with auto-generated reference number and timestamp
- Inquiry timeline tracker — 60-day inquiry deadline, 10-day recommendation, 60-day employer action
- Annual return auto-generation with correct counts in the prescribed format
- Training session log with date and attendance records
- Policy document storage with employee acknowledgement tracking
Complaint-to-annual-report timeline
OpticompBharat tracks every stage and surfaces deadline warnings automatically.
- 1
Complaint received
Reference number auto-generated; clock starts
- 2
60-day inquiry deadline
IC must complete inquiry within 60 days
- 3
10-day recommendation
IC submits findings to employer within 10 days of inquiry
- 4
60-day employer action
Employer implements IC recommendation within 60 days
- 5
January 31 — Annual report
Filed with District Officer; counts auto-populated by OpticompBharat
January 31 annual return — never miss it
OpticompBharat's compliance calendar surfaces the POSH annual return deadline and auto-populates complaint counts from your case log, so filing takes minutes not hours.
POSH compliance, handled.
IC management, complaint timelines, annual return generation — all included in the free 1-year trial for up to 50 employees.