By S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors · Published 7 May 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice: see our disclaimer
What Section 21 Requires
Section 21 of the POSH Act requires the Internal Committee to prepare an annual report, for submission to the employer and onward to the District Officer, setting out the number of complaints received during the year, the number disposed of, the number pending for more than ninety days with reasons recorded, the number of workshops or awareness programmes carried out, and any nature of action taken by the employer. Where no complaint was received at all during the year, the position should still be reported, rather than treated as nothing to file.
Who Files, and With Whom
The Internal Committee prepares the report; the employer includes its substance in its own annual report where one is maintained, and separately forwards the Internal Committee's report to the District Officer. Where the employer is itself the respondent to a complaint, the Local Committee's equivalent report instead goes to the District Officer directly. State rules and timelines vary somewhat, and many states set 31 January as the due date, so organisations with establishments across multiple states should confirm the applicable deadline and format in each relevant state rather than assuming a single pan-India date.
The Additional Layer for Listed and Larger Companies
Separately from the District Officer filing, companies are required under the Companies (Accounts) Rules to disclose, in the Board's Report, the number of sexual harassment complaints filed, disposed of, and pending beyond ninety days during the financial year. This is a distinct, Companies Act-level disclosure, not a substitute for the Section 21 filing, and companies should maintain data in a form that can support both filings consistently rather than reconstructing figures separately for each.
Consolidating Data Across Multiple Committees
An organisation with several offices or factories, each with its own Internal Committee under Section 4, should establish an internal process for each Committee to report its own figures to a central compliance function in good time before the filing deadline, so that the consolidated Board's Report figure (where applicable) and each location's individual District Officer filing are both accurate and filed on schedule.
Consequences of Non-Filing
Persistent non-filing can attract a show-cause notice from the District Officer and, in principle, falls within the kind of default the Act's penalty provisions are directed at, independent of whether any complaint was actually received during the relevant year. Treating the annual filing as a routine, calendared compliance task, rather than an afterthought, avoids this exposure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the employer have to file an annual report even if no complaints were received?
Yes. A 'nil' report still needs to be filed; the obligation to report under Section 21 is not conditional on having received a complaint during the year.
Is the Section 21 filing the same as the Companies Act Board's Report disclosure?
No. They are distinct obligations. The Section 21 filing goes to the District Officer under the POSH Act, while the Board's Report disclosure is a separate requirement under the Companies (Accounts) Rules for companies that maintain one; both should be supported by consistent underlying data.
What is the typical deadline for the annual POSH report?
Many states set 31 January as the due date, but timelines and formats can vary by state, so organisations with establishments in multiple states should confirm the specific deadline applicable in each.
References & Further Reading
This article references the following statutory provisions. Readers should always verify current rules, fees and timelines against the applicable statute and rules as amended, since these are revised from time to time.
- Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Rules, 2013, as amended.