18/05/2026
A court saying there is โclear evidence of abetmentโ against a POSH Internal Committee member should send shockwaves across corporate India.
Read that again carefully.
Not against the accused employee. Against a member of the Internal Committee itself!!
According to reports in the TCS Nashik sexual harassment case, the complainant approached an IC member for help.
The allegation?
Instead of formally supporting the complaint process, the IC member allegedly:
โข discouraged escalation,
โข failed to properly record the grievance,
โข and advised the employee to โsettleโ the matter internally.
The court observed that this conduct prima facie indicated abetment.
This is a defining moment for POSH enforcement in India.
Because the biggest risk in workplace harassment cases is often not the incident alone.
It is what happens AFTER someone gathers the courage to speak up.
An Internal Committee member is not a passive administrator. An IC member carries legal, ethical, and fiduciary responsibility.
Their job is to:
โ ensure complaints are documented
โ protect confidentiality
โ prevent retaliation
โ maintain neutrality
โ and ensure due process
The moment an IC member suppresses, dilutes, discourages, or informally โmanagesโ a complaint, the entire purpose of the POSH Act collapses.
And this is where many organizations are still dangerously unprepared.
Too many companies:
โข nominate untrained IC members
โข treat POSH as annual compliance theatre
โข prioritize reputational containment over employee safety
โข and fail to understand that IC actions can now attract direct judicial scrutiny
This case is a wake-up call.
Being an IC member is not an honorary HR role. It is a position of accountability.
And if courts begin treating institutional silence as participation, corporate India will need to fundamentally rethink how Internal Committees are selected, trained, and monitored.
Employees do not judge organizations by policy documents. They judge them by what happens when someone says: โI need help.โ
Looking for effective training of IC Members and Senior Management Teams on POSH compliance, complaint handling, governance responsibilities, and legally sound inquiry practices?
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