Strengthening Workplace Safety: Supreme Court’s Mandate on SHe-Box Registration under the POSH Act

INTRODUCTION

The recognition of the sexual harassment at the workplace began in India began with the landmark case of Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan in the year 1997, wherein the Hon’ble Supreme Court laid down the “Vishaka Guidelines”. These guidelines were binding in nature and were intended to fill the legislative vacuum and to ensure the protection of women at the workplace. The court directed that these norms would be enforceable until an appropriate legislation is enacted by the Parliament. It was only in the year 2013 that a comprehensive legislation was enacted called Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly known as POSH act, along with the corresponding rules. This act applies to whole of India and covers all employers and the workplaces, public, private, organized and unorganized. It imposes the duties on the employer under section 4 of the act, that “every employer of a workplace shall… constitute a Committee to be known as the Internal Complaints Committee”[i].  The organization with 10 or more employees are mandated to form the ICC and the workplaces with less than 10 employees, the committee is formed at the district level, which is empowered to conduct the inquiry and provide the relief to the complainant.

AN ANALYSIS OF AURELIANO FERNANDES V. STATE OF GOA: SUPREME COURT RULING ON POSH ENFORCEMENT

Despite this robust legislation safeguarding women from the Sexual Harassment at the workplace being in force for more than a decade now, there are reports showing the low awareness level among the employees regarding this legislation. Prior to 2021, only 8% of employees were familiar about the POSH Act and 11% of the employees would leave the organization rather than reporting to sexual harassment incident as per the survey conducted by the Stratefix Consulting, in collaboration with the National Human Resource Development (NHRD)[ii].

The court in Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa[iii], while critically examining the procedural irregularities in the enforcement of the POSH act while handling the sexual harassment complaints in the Goa University. In this case, a professor from the Goa University was suspended without proper inquiry conducted by the ICC. The professor had repeatedly postponed to appear before the committee citing the health reasons, which led the ICC to pass an ex-parte interim order, finding appellant guilty and subsequently terminating his employment without proper inquiry. The request for the inquiry by the professor was quashed by the Bombay HC. The Hon’ble supreme court showed the disappointment with this decision of the ICC in the sexual harassment investigation by pointing out the significant lapses in the enforcement of the POSH. It was also observed by the court that there are various establishments which lacks the ICC and the ones who have, are not as per the law, lacking either the required number of the members or the mandatory external member. This gap in the implementation affects the working women adversely, affecting their mental, physical and emotional health, and reflects the broader institutional failure to ensure the safe, healthy and dignifies workplace environment of them. Furthermore, the court also pointed out that the significant number of women facing the sexual harassment at the workplace are reluctant to report it, majorly due to the fact that there is an uncertainty about whom to approach for the redressal and the lack of trust in the redressal mechanism. The court while emphasizing the issue with the enforcement of the act and the lack of awareness in this regard stated that “However salutary this enactment may be, it will never succeed in providing dignity and respect that women deserve at the workplace unless and until there is strict adherence to the enforcement regime and a proactive approach by all the State and non-State actors.”[iv]

The court while pointing out the lack of proper enforcement of the POSH act called it a “sorry state of affairs” and stressed that “all the …public authorities, private undertakings, organizations and institutions that are duty bound to implement the PoSH Act in letter and spirit”[v] observing that the mere legislative intent is insufficient unless it is accompanied with the robust enforcement, awareness and the institutional commitment. The Supreme court have also issued a series of directions for effective enforcement of the POSH Act, such as directing the Union and the state governments to identity and notify the District Officers and to ensure that the ICCs and LCCs are constituted within the given timelines, upload all the necessary information about the committees on the website of the concerned authority.[vi]

The judiciary has continued to oversee the POSH enforcement since Aureliano Fernandes by the way of continuing Mandamus. The court on December, 3, 2024 and April 22, 2025 have also examined the status of compliance submitted via affidavits from every state to ensure that its earlier directions are implemented.

THE SHe-BOX PORTAL

Sexual Harassment electronic Box (SHe-Box) is an effort of the Government of India to provide a single window access to every woman, irrespective of her work status, whether working in an organized or unorganized, private or public sector, to facilitate the registration of complaint related to sexual harassment under the POSH Act. Any woman facing sexual harassment at workplace can register their complaint through this portal. Once a complaint is submitted to the ‘SHe-Box’, it will be directly sent to the concerned authority having jurisdiction to take action into the matter.[vii] This portal provides women a secure and the confidential way by which they can report the instances of sexual harassment. The POSH Act mandates the appropriate govt, to monitor the implementation and maintain the data about the complaints filed and their disposal. However, there was no centralized database system which provides the details of the ICC and LCC members and the complaints received and their status till disposal.

In alignment to this gap and the Aureliano Fernandes, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) being the Nodal Ministry, relaunched the revamped version of the She-Box on 29.08.2024. The updated version of this portal is designed to serve as the central repository for the ICCs and LCCs at the State/ UT administration level workplaces as well as workplaces in private sector.

MANDATORY REGISTRATION ON THE SHe-BOX PORTAL

The Union and State governments were directed by the Supreme Court to take the action for the effective implementation of the POSH Act and the constitution of the ICCs and LCCs. With the launch of new updated portal of SHe-Box, it will serve as the central repository, so that when the complaint is received it is directly forwarded to the competent authority. If the workplace is not registered and listed at the portal, an aggrieved woman cannot submit the online complaint which will lead to the failure of the entire objective of having the portal in the first place. The portal is designed in a way that it will only process the complaints for the employers who have properly registered the workplace and its committees on the portal. In support of this central directive, several states and districts, such as Delhi[viii], Maharashtra[ix], Uttar Pradesh[x], Odisha[xi], etc. have already issued circulars mandating the registration of the workplaces and ICCs by the Nodal Officers on the SHe-Box portal. This mandate was introduced to ensure the proper implementation of the act and provide the access to the justice and the redressal mechanism to all as “Access to justice is as important as the rendering of justice”.[xii]

Procedure for the Registration of ICC at SHe-Box Portal

The process of registration of the ICC on the SHe-Box portal consists of three parts:

PART 1: Registration of the Head Office and the Nodal Officer.

The organizations having one or multiple branches are required to register their Head office as the first step. The registration can be done at the official website of the SHe-Box available at, https://shebox.wcd.gov.in/. Once the head office is registered, the details will be sent to the District Nodal Officer (DNO), appointed by the relevant authorities. The details of the organization will be verified by the DNO, who will send the login credentials to the Nodal Officer of the Organization after the verification. After the registration of the head office is completed, the confirmation mail received by the organization can be forwarded to the DNO for their information.

PART 2: Registration of all the branches and ICC members.

After receiving the login credentials from the authorities, the organization will be required to login to the portal and register all their branches into the portal along with the ICC members and their details.

PART 3: After adding all the ICC members to the portal, the Presiding Officer (a woman employed at a senior level at the workplace), will get the separate login credentials on the portal where she will be able to monitor the organizations complaint on the portal.[x

CONCLUSION

The recent judicial and administrative landscape around the sexual harassment at the workplace have evolved significantly from the Vishaka Guidelines to the enactment of POSH Act, and most recently, the judicial push for the stronger implementation in the recent landmark judgement. The Supreme Court have reinforced that every workplace must constitute an ICC in accordance with the provisions of the act to ensure transparency and provide for the public redressal mechanism. In this context, the revamped SHe-Box portal plays a vital role in providing the centralized repository and the redressal mechanism, mandating the registration of ICCs in the portal. This step towards the effective enforcement of the POSH act is very crucial in fulfilling the promise of dignified workplace to all the women. 

Author: Saloni Ray, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at  Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

REFERENCES

1.      Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa (2024) 1 SCC 632

2.      Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, C.A. No. 2482 of 2014 (India), Oct. 22, 2024

3.      Sheetal Mishra and Shloka Jain, A Decade of the Posh Act: Supreme Court's Continued Commitment from Paving the Way for Enactment to Strengthening Implementationof the Posh Act 1.2 CLCR (2024) 64

4.      Naina Chandok & Vartika Prasad, New Compliance Directive - SHe-Box Portal Mandatory for All Workplaces, Mondaq (2025).

5.      Rashmi Pradeep & Bishen Jeswant, Supreme Court’s Landmark Ruling : Directions for Effective Implementation of the POSH Act, cyril amarchand mangaldas (2023).

6.      Enforcement Beyond Enactment: The Role of SHe-Box Post Aureliano Fernandes Case, Lexology (June 20, 2025), https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=27088869-5562-4ab0-8342-2702e08e8bdd.

7.      Only 8% employees aware of the PoSH Act, reveals survey, (Feb. 24, 2023), https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/workplace-4-0/only-8-employees-aware-of-the-posh-act-reveals-survey/98193795

8.      Times Of India, POSH push: Cos with over 10 staffers told to register plaints panels, The Times of India (Apr. 20, 2025), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/posh-push-cos-with-over-10-staffers-told-to-register-plaints-panels/articleshow/120440889.cms

https://poshatwork.com/comprehensive-she-box-registration-guide/

[i] § 4, The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, No. 14 of 2013, INDIA CODE (2013).

[ii] Only 8% employees aware of the PoSH Act, reveals survey, (Feb. 24, 2023), https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/workplace-4-0/only-8-employees-aware-of-the-posh-act-reveals-survey/98193795.

[iii] Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa (2024) 1 SCC 632

[iv] Id

[v] Id

[vi] Sheetal Mishra and Shloka Jain, A Decade of the Posh Act: Supreme Court's Continued Commitment from Paving the Way for Enactment to Strengthening Implementationof the Posh Act 1.2 CLCR (2024) 64

[vii] Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, C.A. No. 2482 of 2014 (India), Oct. 22, 2024

[viii] https://poshatwork.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/articles/notifications/order-under-posh-act-in-nct-delhi.pdf

[ix] महिला तक्रार समितीची नोंदणी बंधनकारक; जिल्ह्यातील खासगी आस्थापनांना स्पष्ट सूचना, Loksatta (Apr. 25, 2025), https://www.loksatta.com/thane/registration-of-womens-grievance-committee-is-mandatory-clear-instructions-to-private-establishments-in-district-mrj-95-5048009/.

[x] Times Of India, POSH push: Cos with over 10 staffers told to register plaints panels, The Times of India (Apr. 20, 2025), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/posh-push-cos-with-over-10-staffers-told-to-register-plaints-panels/articleshow/120440889.cms.

[xi] https://sambadenglish.com/latest-news/odisha-govt-directs-strict-compliance-with-posh-act-issues-guidelines-for-workplaces-institutions-9515942

[xii] Supra note 7, at 8.

[xiii] https://poshatwork.com/comprehensive-she-box-registration-guide/