Complainant in an ICC Case: Interim Relief, Transfer and Leave Under the POSH Act

POSH interim relief: what Section 12 allows while the inquiry is pending

Under Section 12 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, the Internal Committee can recommend interim measures to the employer during the inquiry. Three are named: transferring the aggrieved woman or the respondent to any other workplace, granting her leave of up to three months, and any other relief the rules prescribe. The employer must implement the recommendation and report back to the committee.

Rule 8 of the POSH Rules, 2013 adds to that list. The committee may recommend that the respondent be restrained from reporting on your work performance or writing your confidential report, which in a central office means your APAR, and that this work be given to another officer. In an educational institution, he can be stopped from supervising your academic work.

The leave under Section 12 is in addition to the leave you would otherwise be entitled to. So if you have 120 days of earned leave in your account and are given 60 days of special leave, the 120 days stay where they are.

POSH interim relief is not a finding that he is guilty, and committees often say so in their orders. It exists to let you work, or stay away from work, without fear while the facts are being tested. That is also why the committee should act on a request quickly instead of leaving it for the final report. Our page on complaints before the Internal Committee sets out how the whole case runs in a central office.

The interim reliefs at a glance

Special leave of up to 90 days in central government

For central government servants, this leave for the complainant is built into the CCS (Leave) Rules. Rule 48 was substituted by a notification of 15 March 2017 (G.S.R. 251(E)) to provide special leave connected to an inquiry into sexual harassment: up to 90 days, for an aggrieved woman government servant, on the recommendation of the Internal Committee or the Local Committee, during the pendency of the inquiry, and not debited to her leave account.

Three conditions follow from that wording. The committee must recommend it, so the request goes to the committee first and not to the leave-sanctioning section. The leave runs only while the inquiry is pending, so it cannot be granted after the report is final. And it is a maximum, not an entitlement to the full 90 days; the committee may recommend fewer days and extend if needed.

You need not take the whole period at once. Some women ask for a block of two or three weeks around the hearings, when facing the respondent daily is hardest, and keep the rest in reserve. Ask the committee to say in its recommendation that the leave may be availed in spells.

Once the special leave is used, ordinary leave rules apply. If you have a young child, child care leave remains available on its own terms; our page on child care leave refused or cut short explains when a refusal can be challenged. For the wider set of protections women central employees have, see the guide on leave and posting protections for women employees.

Transfer: should he move, or should you?

The Act lets the committee recommend moving either party, and that even-handed wording is sometimes misused. A transfer of the respondent is the natural first choice when the two of you share a section. The person who has complained is moved to a distant branch, labelled as a protective step, while the respondent stays in his chair. That defeats the purpose of the section and discourages others from coming forward.

Say in your request which of you should move and why. If you want to stay, write that you do not seek a transfer for yourself and ask that the respondent be moved to another section or office in the same station. If you would prefer to move yourself, name the place and ask that the order record it was made at your request, without loss of seniority, allowances or quarters.

If you are transferred against your wishes during the inquiry, represent at once to the head of office and copy the Presiding Officer. Point out that you did not ask for it, that it follows your complaint, and that it causes you specific loss. A transfer that looks like a consequence of complaining can be questioned before the tribunal; our page on challenging a transfer order explains the ordinary limits of that challenge.

Moving the respondent across stations is a bigger step, usually needing approval from a higher authority. Committees often recommend a move within the same campus or city first, because it can be done in days. Accept that if it solves the problem; the aim is distance in daily work, not punishment before the inquiry.

Filing the complaint and asking for interim relief

These steps follow the POSH Act and Rules as they apply in central government offices. The order matters.

1. Find the right committee

   Every office with ten or more workers must have an Internal Committee, and its members' names should be displayed. If the man is the head of your office, the Act sends complaints against the employer to the Local Committee of the district, though some departments route these to a committee at the next level; ask in writing which applies.

2. File within three months

   Under Section 9, the complaint goes in within three months of the incident or of the last incident in a series. The committee may extend this by three months for recorded reasons, so file even if you are a little late and explain why.

3. Put it in writing, with details

   The POSH Rules ask for six copies of the complaint with supporting documents and the names and addresses of witnesses. If you cannot write it yourself, a committee member must help you. You can also register it on the SHe-Box portal of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which forwards it to the committee.

4. Ask for interim relief in a separate letter

   Address it to the Presiding Officer. State what has happened since the incident, what you fear, and the exact relief you want. Keep it to one or two pages.

5. Follow up on implementation

   After the committee recommends, the employer must act and report back. If nothing happens in a week or two, write to the head of office with a copy to the committee.

6. Take part in the inquiry

   Attend hearings, give your statement, and tell the committee if you need to answer questions by video or from another room. You may bring a support person where the committee allows it.

Advocate B.K. Singh advises complainants to keep the interim relief request apart from the complaint and to name the relief in plain words: 'move Mr X out of the Accounts branch' rather than 'take necessary action'. A specific request is easy to grant and hard to ignore, and the file shows exactly what was refused.

The provisions behind your request

Your APAR and the man who writes it

In many central offices the respondent is the woman's reporting or reviewing officer. That gives him a hold over her career well after the complaint is decided, because one below-benchmark APAR can delay MACP and promotion for years. Rule 8 of the POSH Rules lets the committee take that pen away from him during the inquiry.

Ask for it in your interim request even if you are not worried yet. Name the reporting year and ask that a stated officer write your APAR for that year. If the APAR for the year of the complaint has already been written by him, ask that it be reviewed by someone else before it is finalised.

If a poor grading appears later and you suspect it is connected to the complaint, use the 15-day window to represent against an APAR at once. Our page on APAR graded below benchmark explains how such gradings are challenged, and a complaint-linked grading is a strong ground.

Writing the request: what to put in, what to leave out

Keep the POSH interim relief letter short and factual. Begin with the date of your complaint and one line on what it is about. Then describe what has happened since: whether he still sits near you, approves your leave, assigns you work or attends the same meetings, and any remark or change in treatment since you complained.

Next, set out the relief, numbered. For leave, give the number of days and whether you want it in spells. For transfer, say who should move and where. For APAR, name the year and the officer you suggest. If you need practical changes, such as no joint field visits or a different seat, list them too.

Leave out the full narrative of the harassment, which belongs in the complaint and statement, and leave out opinions about the respondent's character. The committee needs to see why you need protection now, not to decide the case on this letter.

Advocate B.K. Singh also suggests that a complainant keep a dated diary from the day she files: every meeting, every comment, every file taken off her table. Victimisation after a complaint is common and is far easier to prove from notes written on the day than from memory a year later at the tribunal.

Papers to keep in your own file

• A copy of your complaint with the date stamp or the SHe-Box acknowledgement
• Your interim relief letter and proof that the committee received it
• The committee's recommendation on interim relief and the office's order implementing it
• Leave orders showing the special leave was not debited to your account
• Any transfer, posting or work-allocation order issued after your complaint
• Screenshots and full exports of messages from the respondent, with dates
• Your dated diary of events after the complaint
• Notices of hearing, your statement, and the final report when you receive it

Timelines you can expect

Conciliation is your choice alone

Under Section 10, the committee may try conciliation before the inquiry, but only if you ask. No one can pressure you into it, and money cannot be the basis of the settlement. If anyone in the office suggests that you settle to save the respondent's career, note it in your diary and tell the committee.

If you do settle, the terms are recorded and copies go to both of you and the employer, and no inquiry is held. If he breaks the terms later, you can tell the committee and it will proceed to inquire. Make sure any change in seating, reporting or tours forms part of the written terms, so that it does not quietly lapse after a few months.

Police complaint alongside the committee

The committee route and the criminal route are separate, and you can use both. Conduct of this kind may be an offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which has applied since 1 July 2024: Section 75 deals with sexual harassment, Section 74 with assault or criminal force intended to outrage modesty, and Section 79 with words or gestures intended to insult a woman's modesty.

Section 19 of the POSH Act requires the employer to assist you if you choose to file a criminal complaint, and to start action against the perpetrator under the criminal law if you so wish. The committee's inquiry does not wait for the police case, and the police case does not depend on the committee's finding.

Think about timing and evidence before you go to the police. A criminal case needs proof to a higher standard and moves slowly. Many women file with the committee first, take interim relief, and decide on the police complaint after taking advice.

If the committee or the office does nothing

First, write. Send a reminder to the Presiding Officer if your interim request has not been decided, and a letter to the head of office if a recommendation has not been implemented. Keep each letter short and attach the earlier one. If you need the file notings on what happened to your request, an RTI application can help, though Section 16 limits what is released; our guide on RTI for inquiry files and APARs explains what is usually given and what is refused. Under Section 26 an employer who fails to act under the Act can be fined up to Rs 50,000, and senior officers usually take a written reminder citing it seriously.

Second, use the appeal. Section 18 covers non-implementation of the committee's recommendations as well as the recommendations themselves, and it runs under your service rules.

Third, for a central government employee, the Central Administrative Tribunal can hear a refusal of leave, a punitive transfer, an adverse APAR or other service consequence that follows your complaint, as a service matter under Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. If the matter is urgent, the tribunal can be asked for an interim order at the first hearing; see our page on interim stays from CAT. Our page on Internal Committee complaints for central employees covers how these cases are argued.

Which forum and which bench applies to you

If you are a central government servant, including civilian staff in defence units, railway and postal employees, and staff of bodies notified under Section 14(2) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, your service grievance goes to CAT. File at the bench covering your place of posting or the place where the order was passed. Our CAT lawyer page explains how an Original Application is put together.

Women in the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP or SSB, and those working in public sector undertakings or banks, generally approach the High Court by writ; see writs for CAPF, PSU and bank employees. State government employees use the state tribunal where one exists, or the High Court. Members of the Army, Navy and Air Force have their own complaint system and the Armed Forces Tribunal.

Contract and outsourced workers in a central office are covered by the POSH Act as 'employees' and can complain to the office's committee and seek interim relief, but they are not government servants and cannot go to CAT for their own service grievances. Their remedies lie against the contractor and, where needed, through the High Court.

Fears that hold complainants back

Many women delay because they fear being punished if the complaint is not proved. Section 14 allows action only where the committee finds the complaint false or malicious, and it says in terms that failing to prove a complaint or produce enough evidence does not attract that action. An honest complaint that the committee cannot substantiate is not a false one.

Others fear that the respondent will learn everything they say. He will receive the complaint and the evidence used against him, because he has a right to defend himself, but Section 16 bars anyone from publishing your identity or the details outside the proceedings. If colleagues start discussing your case, report it to the committee.

And some fear the respondent's seniority. The outside member on the committee is there partly for this reason. If the respondent is senior to every member, say so in writing and ask how the department intends to keep the inquiry free from pressure.

If you have filed or are about to file a complaint and want your interim relief request, a refused leave or a transfer order looked at, or want to stay updated on the rules, contact Advocate B.K. Singh. The respondent's side of the same process is explained in our guide on the respondent's rights in an ICC inquiry.