Can the Head of HR (a female) be the Chairperson of the POSH Committee for the organization?

Can the Head of HR (a female) be the Chairperson of the POSH Committee for the organization?

Hi Deepika,

In context to Section 4 of POSH Act 2013 for India, there no is mention about chairperson rather presiding officer is address. female employees in the organisation can become presiding officer who can nominated by company management.

Regards
Dixitgiri Goswami
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Though there is no bar on the HR Head becoming the Chairperson of POSH Committee, it is better if it could be avoided. The POSH Committee is to determine whether the rules have been violated or not and generally it is the HR function which puts up the case. So it is better to avoid it if possible, but where it is unavoidable for various reasons then it could be tried

HiDeepika
Posch Act 2013is an Act to provide protection against sexual harassment of women at workplace and for the prevention and readdress of complaints of sexual harassment and for matters connected therewith or incidental

There is no Bar in a Female being a presiding officer, but she should have knowledge of the Act and judiciously, dealing the matter in a non partisan manner.

Hi There is some quality information available here on POSh https://bharatgrouponline.com/free-p...ion-slides.php

Hope it ll help

Ideally having a Head HR as a Presiding officer of the IC is not recommended as there is a likelihood of conflict of interest. In case of a complaint of SH, the HR Head would generally be involved in implementing the recommendations of the IC.
Secondly HR Head because of his/her position in the organisation would be involved with decision making with respect to the employees, company's interests and is quite likely to be biased in decision making while handling a complaint.
The decision taken by an improperly formed IC is liable to be set aside.

As such a person from HR can be a part of the IC but advisable not to have the HR Head as part of IC.