Internal Committee or ICC: What Is the Correct Term?

Short answer: they are the same body. "ICC" is short for "Internal Complaints Committee", and the Act itself uses both phrasings. For your own policy, notices and orders, use "Internal Committee (IC)" and mention "ICC" once so readers searching for it can connect the two.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Why people are confused

Ask ten HR teams and you may hear "IC", "ICC", "Internal Committee", "Internal Complaints Committee" and "POSH committee". They all mean the committee an employer sets up under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to receive and look into complaints.

The confusion has a reason. The heading of section 4 of the Act reads "Internal Complaints Committee". The body of the Act and its definition section use the shorter "Internal Committee", and the definition describes it as the Internal Complaints Committee constituted under section 4. So you can quote the Act for either term.

Before the Act, the Supreme Court's 1997 Vishakha guidelines asked workplaces to have a complaints committee. That older wording is part of why "ICC" stuck in everyday use.

Which should you use?

For documents that employees and regulators will read, we suggest:

• Use "Internal Committee (IC)" as the main term, because it is the one the Act's operative text uses.
• Add "also called the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC)" the first time, so nobody wonders whether you mean something different.
• Be consistent. Your policy, the order constituting the committee, the notice board and the website should all use the same term for the same body.

Neither choice is "wrong". What matters is that an employee can find the committee and understand that it is the one the law requires.

Two committees people mix up

The "IC" is not the only committee in the Act. The Local Committee (LC) is set up by the District Officer and receives complaints from workplaces with fewer than ten workers, and complaints made against the employer. If you are unsure which applies to you, see When Is an Internal Committee Required?.

Quick reference

You may hear	It means
IC / Internal Committee	The committee constituted by the employer under section 4
ICC / Internal Complaints Committee	The same committee, using the heading's wording
LC / Local Committee	The district-level committee for small workplaces and complaints against the employer
"POSH committee"	Informal name, usually meaning the IC

Where training helps

The name is the easy part. The harder part is making sure the people on the committee know their role. TTM India's IC/ICC Member Training is built for that. For wider awareness across your teams, see our POSH training programmes.

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Information on this website is for training and general awareness. It does not constitute legal advice. Organisations should obtain advice appropriate to their facts and applicable law.

Sources: Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 — text of the Act and Rules.