The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) makes it mandatory for offices having 10 or more employees to constitute an Internal Committee (“IC”) to inquire into and address complaints of sexual harassment within the workplace. 

In this regard, the Maharashtra State Women Commission (“Commission”) has now announced that it will send a team to pay surprise visits to check whether companies are complying with this requirement and the company shall be directed to pay a fine of Rs. 50,000 if it is found that there is no IC.

Rupali Chakankar, the Chairperson of the Commission had written a letter to the Secretary of the state regarding the same and recommended that companies within the state should be given directions to constitute ICs. She announced that if the company is found to be in default then the cancellation of its registration license would be recommended and if such a violation is found in government and semi-government organizations, then action would be taken against them as well.