What are my legal options if I face sexual harassment at my workplace?

What you are describing is covered under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly called the POSH Act, which applies to every workplace in India with 10 or more employees and requires the constitution of an Internal Committee (IC) to receive and inquire into such complaints.

Your first step should be to file a written complaint with your company's Internal Committee — every covered employer is legally required to have one, and its contact details are usually available through HR or the company's POSH policy document. You have up to 3 months from the date of the incident to file, extendable by the Committee in appropriate circumstances. The complaint does not need to be a polished legal document; a clear, dated account of the specific incidents, including approximate times and any witnesses, is what the Committee needs to begin an inquiry.

The Internal Committee is required to complete its inquiry within 90 days and submit its findings, and the company must act on its recommendations, which can include a range of actions from a written warning to termination of the harasser, depending on the severity of the conduct found. Throughout this process, the Act specifically protects you from retaliation, and if you are transferred, demoted, or otherwise victimised for filing the complaint, that itself becomes a separate serious violation you can additionally raise.

If your company has no Internal Committee (which would itself be a violation of the Act) or you are not satisfied with how the internal process is handled, you can approach the Local Committee constituted at the district level under the same Act. Depending on the nature of the conduct, you may also have grounds for a criminal complaint under relevant provisions dealing with sexual harassment and outraging modesty — I would strongly recommend consulting an employment lawyer promptly to help you file a strong internal complaint and advise you on whether criminal proceedings alongside it are appropriate for your specific facts.