Company Withholds Notice Period Pay After Immediate Relieving — What You Can Do in India

Priya Verma had been working with a mid-sized Pune-based IT services firm — a subsidiary of a well-known Indian conglomerate — for over three years when she decided to resign in late February 2025. Her employment contract was unambiguous: either party could terminate the engagement with three months' written notice, or pay an equivalent sum in lieu of that notice. Priya submitted her resignation in writing, explicitly stating she was willing and available to serve the full notice period.

HR responded within two days. They informed her there was nothing to hand over, revoked her system access the same afternoon, and marked her last working day as the date of her resignation itself. No discussion. No mutual agreement. Just a done deal, as far as they were concerned.

The salary credited that month covered only those two days. Emails to HR, the finance team, and even her former reporting manager went unanswered for over three weeks. When responses did come, they were vague. One email said "we'll revert by the weekend." Nobody reverted.

Priya had already approached a general practitioner who sent an informal letter to the company, which produced no result. She then reached out to Advocate Sudhir Rao, whose practice includes employment and contractual disputes of this nature. A formal legal notice was drafted under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, clearly quantifying the unpaid notice period salary and citing the specific contractual clause. Within 18 days of that notice being served, the company credited the full salary in lieu of the notice period directly to her account.

You can read about this case in detail at https://sudhirrao.com/company-withholds-notice-period-pay-after-immediate-relievin/