Few clauses in an Indian employment contract cause as much friction as the notice period. It sits quietly in the appointment letter until someone resigns or gets let go, and then it shapes everything that follows: when the person actually leaves, how much money changes hands, whether a job offer holds, and how cleanly a team absorbs the gap. For a country where roughly one in six employees changed jobs last year, that single clause touches an enormous amount of working life.
A notice period is the gap between the day on which notice is given by either party and the last working day, during which the employment relationship continues in full. It exists to protect both parties. The employer gets time to plan a handover and find a replacement. The employee receives continued salary and benefits, and a documented, professional exit rather than an abrupt one.
What a Notice Period Actually is
A notice period is the mandatory period between resignation or termination and the final working day, during which pay, benefits, and obligations all continue as normal.
Think of it less as a countdown and more as a managed transition window. It applies in three broad situations:
- The first is resignation, when an employee chooses to leave and serves notice to the employer.
- The second is termination, when the employer ends the relationship and owes notice to the employee.
- The third is workforce restructuring, in which layoffs or retrenchment trigger their own notice rules, which, for certain workers, are set by statute rather than by contract.
For the employer, notice buys time to redistribute work, brief a successor, and protect client relationships. For the employee, it secures income and benefits through the transition and produces a clean record: a relieving letter, a settled account, and no allegation of abandonment. Treated well, it’s an operational mechanism. Treated badly, it becomes the centre of a dispute.
How Notice Periods Work in Practice
The process is fairly consistent across Indian organisations, even when the lengths differ.
It begins when one side initiates the separation. An employee submits a formal resignation, usually in writing and addressed to the reporting manager and HR, or the employer issues a termination or retrenchment notice. From that date, the notice period clock starts.
What happens during the window is where the real work sits. The departing employee documents ongoing tasks, transfers knowledge to colleagues or a successor, closes out or hands over projects, and updates records so nothing critical walks out the door undocumented.
HR runs the exit process in parallel: clearances from IT, finance, and administration, an exit interview, and preparation of the full and final settlement. On the last working day, access is revoked, assets are returned, and the relieving and experience letters are issued, assuming there’s no pending disciplinary matter.
The full and final settlement is where a lot of the quiet tension lives. It’s the closing reconciliation of everything owed in both directions: unpaid salary, encashment of accrued leave, any pending reimbursements or incentives, gratuity if the tenure qualifies, and pending provident fund formalities, set against any recoveries such as notice-period shortfall, unreturned assets, or advances.
The new Labour Codes push for faster settlement timelines, and a well-run HR function closes this out within a defined window rather than letting it drift for months, which is a common grievance among departing Indian employees. A clean settlement statement, itemised so the employee can see exactly what was added and deducted, prevents most of the post-exit emails that otherwise pile up.
Relieving and experience letters are the other deliverables that matter disproportionately. The next employer’s background verification will often ask for them, and a withheld or delayed relieving letter can stall a new joining date even when the employee did nothing wrong. Barring proven misconduct, these documents are the employee’s due, and holding them hostage over a buyout dispute is both poor practice and legally shaky.
Common Notice Period Lengths in India
There’s no single figure, but the market clusters around a few standard durations.
| Notice Period | Where It Typically Applies |
| 15 days | Probationary employees, some junior or entry-level roles, and certain frontline positions |
| 30 days | Confirmed employees in many sectors, the statutory benchmark for “workmen” and most state Shops & Establishments Acts |
| 60 days | Mid-level and experienced professionals, several BFSI and services roles |
| 90 days | Senior employees, IT services professionals, managerial and specialist roles |
Why the spread? Seniority is the biggest driver: the harder a person is to replace and the more institutional knowledge they hold, the longer the notice. Industry matters too, with IT services and consulting leaning toward 90 days, while manufacturing and retail often sit at 30. And the role’s exposure to clients, sensitive data, or critical systems pushes the number up, because the handover genuinely takes longer.
During a probationary period, notice is usually 15 days or even a single week, on the logic that neither side has invested much yet. Confirmation is the trigger that lengthens it, which is why employees sometimes find their notice obligation jumping from a fortnight to a quarter the day their confirmation letter lands.
What Determines a Notice Period
Several sources combine to set the rule for any given employee and employer regarding the length of a notice period. Contractual and legal obligations both play integral roles in this particular conversation.
Employment Contract
For the vast majority of white-collar Indian workers, including most IT professionals, managers, and specialists, the notice period is as stated in the signed appointment letter. There is no statute that imposes 60 or 90 days; those numbers are contractual choices the company makes, and the employee accepts at hiring.
Under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, that agreement is binding on both sides, which is why reading the clause before signing matters more than people assume.
Company Policy
Organisations codify notice rules in HR manuals, standing orders, or grade-based policies, often varying the length by level. Policy fills in the operational details that the contract leaves open, such as how buyout is calculated or whether leave can run concurrently with notice.
Labour Law
For employees classified as “workmen,” the central statute sets a floor. For everyone else, state Shops & Establishments Acts may impose a minimum notice depending on the state and length of service. Because labour is a concurrent subject, these rules differ across states, so the same role can carry different statutory minimums in Delhi versus Maharashtra.
Employee Category
The legal protections that apply to a factory operative or a clerical “workman” don’t automatically extend to a manager or supervisor. That distinction, more than any other, decides whether statute or contract governs a given exit.
Notice Periods Under Indian Employment Law
Indian law has no universal notice period rule. What exists is a set of overlapping sources, and which one applies depends almost entirely on how the employee is classified.
The Workmen
For most of India’s organised white-collar workforce, the employment contract is the governing instrument. The notice period is a contractual term, enforceable under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, and the figure in the appointment letter is the figure that binds. This is why a 90-day notice clause is lawful even though no statute mentions 90 days.
For employees classified as “workmen,” central labour law sets a baseline. Following the rollout of India’s four Labour Codes, the relevant provision now sits in the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which consolidated and replaced the earlier Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
Under Section 70 of the Code, a worker in continuous service for at least one year cannot be retrenched until they’ve been given one month’s written notice stating the reasons, or paid wages in lieu of that notice, along with retrenchment compensation of fifteen days’ average pay for every completed year of service. The term the law uses is “retrenchment” rather than “termination,” but the notice principle is the same.
Non-Workmen
For non-workmen, which covers managers, supervisors, and most senior professionals, the Code’s retrenchment provisions don’t apply, and the contract plus any applicable state law governs entirely.
One genuinely new element under the codes changes the paper trail behind every notice period. The Industrial Relations framework now contemplates a mandatory appointment letter for all workers, including fixed-term employees.
For decades, large parts of India’s workforce, especially in the informal and contract segments, worked without written terms at all, making any notice-period claim almost impossible to enforce. A documented appointment letter gives both sides something to point to when an exit is contested.
What the Law Typically Requires
State Shops & Establishments Acts add another layer for employees in commercial establishments, and the provisions vary by state. A few examples show the range:
| State | Statutory Notice Provision |
| Delhi | One month’s notice by either side once the employee completes three months of continuous service (Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954) |
| Maharashtra | 30 days’ notice or pay in lieu for employees with at least one year of continuous service |
| Tamil Nadu | One month’s notice or pay in lieu for employees with six months of continuous service |
Across these, the recurring principle is that notice must be reasonable, that pay in lieu is an accepted substitute, and that the obligation usually runs both ways. The contractual notice period may be longer than the statutory minimum, but it generally can’t drop below it for covered employees.
A second principle, established through the courts, is that overly long notice periods can be challenged. Indian courts have repeatedly held that a notice clause amounting to an unreasonable restraint of trade under Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, may not be enforceable.
In practice, courts routinely uphold notice periods of one to three months as reasonable, and have enforced six-month clauses for genuinely senior roles where the employer can show a legitimate business interest, but they tend to strike such long clauses down when applied to junior or mid-level staff.
Where Employers Often Get It Wrong
Recurring mistakes made by employers turn straightforward exits into disputes. More often than not, it is about the application of the established rules that leads to conflicts.
The first is applying policy inconsistently. Waiving notice for one departing employee while strictly enforcing it against another, with no documented rationale, invites claims of unfair or discriminatory treatment. Consistency is the cheapest protection an employer has.
The second is vague contract language. A clause that doesn’t clearly state the notice length, whether pay in lieu is permitted, and how it’s calculated leaves room for argument, exactly when tempers are already frayed.
The Mohan Lal v. Bharat Electronics Ltd. (2013) ruling is instructive: courts have held that an employer cannot simply refuse an employee’s offer of salary in lieu of notice without showing actual operational loss. A clearly worded clause in the appointment letter heads off that fight.
The third is non-compliant termination. Ending a “workman’s” service without the notice, pay in lieu, or due process the Code requires can render the termination illegal. For workmen, that means a show-cause notice, a domestic inquiry alleging misconduct, and a reasoned order. Skipping steps, even with valid grounds, exposes the employer to a wrongful termination claim.
Employee Rights During the Notice Period
Resigning, or being asked to leave, doesn’t suspend an employee’s entitlements. The relationship continues, and so do the protections.
Salary and Benefits
An employee serving notice is entitled to full pay and all contractual benefits through the last working day. Provident fund contributions, insurance cover, and any other benefits tied to active employment continue until employment formally ends. The employer can’t quietly downgrade compensation because the person is on the way out.
Leaves during Notice Period
Whether accrued leave can be taken during the notice period or offsets notice days depends on company policy and usually requires approval. Some employers allow leave to run concurrently; others extend the notice period by the number of days of leave taken. This is a frequent source of confusion, and checking the policy beats assuming.
Accrued but unused earned leave is typically encashed in the full and final settlement, and the value can be substantial for someone who banked leave over several years. But policies on whether you can burn leave during notice versus encash it later differ, and some employers cap how much leave can be carried or encashed.
Sorting this out early, rather than in the final week, avoids the common scenario where an employee assumes leave will shorten their notice and finds out otherwise only when the relieving date is already fixed.
Work and Expectations
The employee remains responsible for their role during the notice period. That means completing handovers, documenting processes, and meeting reasonable deliverables. The transition is a shared obligation, not a paid wind-down.
Protection from Unfair Treatment
Employees can’t be harassed, coerced, or retaliated against for resigning, and they can’t be unlawfully prevented from leaving. The relieving and experience letters must be issued unless there’s proven misconduct. Courts have been clear on the underlying point, which the next section addresses: an employer may recover money for unserved notice but cannot physically compel someone to keep working.
Employer Rights During the Notice Period
The notice period protects the employer too, and these rights are real, provided they’re exercised within the contract and the law.
Business Continuity
The employer is entitled to a genuine handover: knowledge transfer, documentation, and a structured transition so the departing employee’s work doesn’t simply vanish. This is the whole reason notice periods exist, and the employee is obliged to cooperate.
Managing Transition Risk
Where a departing employee holds key client relationships, sits on critical projects, or has access to sensitive systems, the employer can take reasonable steps to protect those: planned client introductions, project handovers, and managed withdrawal of system access toward the end of the period. For more on retaining the people you’d rather not lose in the first place, see our guide on reducing employee turnover.
Clear Expectations
The employer can also set expectations during notice, such as attendance requirements, specific deliverables, and the documentation required before release. And where an employee leaves without serving the full notice, the employer generally has the right to recover the unserved portion, typically by deducting notice pay from the full and final settlement.
Forced Stay?
What the employer cannot do is force the person to stay. In Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. v. Rupa Chakraborty (2015), the Calcutta High Court held that an employer can recover salary in lieu of unserved notice but cannot compel an employee to continue working.
The principle traces back further, to the Supreme Court’s observation in Nandganj Sihori Sugar Co. v. Badri Nath Dixit (1991) that contractual notice clauses must be reasonable and cannot impose an unfair restraint on employment. Recovery, yes. Compulsion, no.
Notice Period Buyout: What It Means
A buyout is a mechanism that allows someone to leave before the notice period ends by compensating the other party for the shortfall. It’s one of the most-used and most-misunderstood parts of the Indian exit process.
In plain terms, a notice-period buyout means the employee pays the employer an amount equal to the salary for the unserved notice days in exchange for an earlier release. The reverse also happens: an employer can pay an employee notice pay in lieu and release them immediately.
How it works mechanically is straightforward. If the notice is 30 days and the employee serves none of it, the buyout is roughly 30 days’ salary, often calculated on basic pay or a defined component rather than full CTC, depending on the contract. A partial buyout covers only the days not served. The recovery is usually netted against the full and final settlement rather than paid separately.
Whether a buyout is available depends on the contract. If the appointment letter or standing orders explicitly provide for payment in lieu of notice, either party can invoke it. If the contract is silent, the party seeking to shorten the period must obtain the other party’s agreement. Employers can refuse a buyout in narrow situations, such as when the employee is under active disciplinary proceedings, but, as the Mohan Lal ruling indicates, a blanket refusal without demonstrable operational loss rests on weak legal grounds.
One practical wrinkle that catches people out is the tax. The treatment isn’t symmetrical, and it’s worth knowing before negotiating:
- When the employee pays the employer to shorten notice, that buyout is not tax-deductible for the employee.
- When a new employer reimburses the buyout on the employee’s behalf, it is generally taxable as a perquisite in the employee’s hands.
- When the employer pays notice pay in lieu to a departing employee, that payment is taxable as salary income and subject to TDS.
None of this is legal advice for a specific situation, and the exact treatment can turn on how a package is structured, so anyone with real money at stake should confirm it with a tax professional.
Garden Leave and Salary in Lieu of Notice
Garden leave and salary in lieu of notice both sit close to the buyout, which is exactly why they get muddled with it and with each other. All three shorten or alter how the notice period is actually served, but they differ on who initiates them, who pays, and whether the employee stays on the books. Knowing which is which matters because the money and the legal footing change with each.
What Garden Leave Means
Garden leave is when the employer asks an employee to stay away from work during the notice period while keeping them on the payroll with full salary and benefits. The employee remains employed and stays bound by confidentiality and other in-service obligations, but does no actual work and has no access to clients, colleagues, or sensitive systems. It’s most common for senior people, sales leaders with client relationships, and anyone with access to trade secrets, where the employer would rather pay the person to stay home than let them keep working while heading for the exit.
What Salary in Lieu of Notice Means
Salary in lieu of notice is the employer-initiated waiver. Rather than have the person serve out the period, the employer pays for the notice days and ends the relationship sooner. From the employee’s side, it means an earlier exit with the notice paid out.
From the employer’s side, it’s a clean break where keeping the person around adds no value. The distinction from garden leave is simple: on garden leave, the employee stays on the rolls and keeps drawing salary through the period, whereas with salary in lieu, the relationship ends early and the notice days are simply paid out.
When Organisations Use These Approaches
Employers reach for these tools in specific circumstances rather than as a default. Sensitive roles where continued system or client access is a risk are the most common trigger. Leadership transitions, where a successor needs room to step in without the outgoing person still in the chair, are another.
So are situations where confidentiality or competitive concerns make the employee’s continued presence on the floor undesirable, even though the contract still entitles them to pay.
Are They Enforceable in India?
On enforceability, Indian law is reasonably settled. Garden leave is not separately governed by statute but is enforceable through the contract, provided it’s clearly specified in the employment agreement, the employee continues to receive full salary and benefits, and the duration is reasonable, typically up to about three months.
The leading authority is the Bombay High Court’s judgment in VFS Global Services v. Suprit Roy, which established that garden leave can be enforced only during the notice period while employment still exists, not after it ends, because a post-termination restraint would fall foul of Section 27. An employer also can’t unilaterally impose garden leave where the contract provides no basis for it.
Common Notice Period Scenarios
Most notice period disputes are variations on a small set of recurring situations, and almost all of them resolve more cleanly when both sides know how the rules apply. Grouping them by who’s driving the exit makes the pattern easier to see.
When the Employee Drives the Exit
The most common starting point is an employee who wants out, sometimes faster than the contract allows.
Where the employee wants to leave early, the cleanest route is a buyout, where the contract permits one, or a negotiated early release. Without either, the employer can insist on the full period or recover pay for the unserved portion, but it can’t physically detain the employee. A polite, documented request for early release tends to work better than a unilateral departure.
Joining a new employer during notice is common and usually fine, but it can collide with contractual restrictions on moonlighting or conflict of interest. The friction is almost always about dates rather than legality: the new employer wants a joining date that the current 60 or 90-day notice won’t allow, which is what drives so many buyout requests.
Absconding during notice is the worst option on the table. Walking off without completing notice or formalities risks recovery action, a withheld relieving letter, and reputational damage that surfaces at the next background check. Some employers also mark such exits as “not eligible for rehire,” and in tightly networked sectors like IT services, that label can resurface years later when a recruiter calls a former manager.
When the Employer Drives the Exit
Employer-initiated scenarios carry more legal weight because employee protections are stronger.
Where the employer wants immediate separation for ordinary business reasons, the standard route is to pay salary in lieu of notice and end the relationship at once. For workmen, this must still satisfy the Industrial Relations Code’s notice and compensation requirements, including retrenchment compensation where applicable. For non-workmen, the contract governs.
Termination for misconduct is the one scenario where notice can lawfully be dispensed with altogether. An employer can terminate without notice or pay in lieu for gross misconduct such as fraud, theft, violence, wilful insubordination, or conviction for an offence involving moral turpitude. Even then, due process is not optional.
For a workman, it means a show-cause notice setting out the charges, a domestic inquiry, a genuine opportunity for the employee to respond, and a reasoned termination order. The Code sets a 90-day outer limit for completing such an inquiry, with a subsistence allowance payable to a suspended worker in the meantime.
Skipping the process, however strong the grounds, converts a defensible dismissal into a successful wrongful termination claim.
Notice Periods and Hiring Challenges
Long notice periods don’t just shape exits. They quietly distort recruitment on the other side of the move, and the effect is sharpest in sectors where 90-day clauses are the norm. A notice period set by an employee’s current company becomes a constraint that the next company has to plan around.
Why Long Notice Periods Slow Hiring
The core problem is timing, and it bites in two ways. When a strong candidate is locked into a 90-day notice, some drop off entirely, accepting a competing offer that lets them join sooner. Others accept, but the hiring company then waits a full quarter for them to start, leaving the role open and the team short-staffed through the gap.
The knock-on effects compound in a tight market. A 90-day gap between offer and joining is long enough for a counteroffer to materialise, for the candidate’s circumstances to change, or for a third company to enter with a faster start date. Recruiters in Indian IT and BFSI plan around a measurable offer-to-join drop-off, where a meaningful share of accepted offers never convert into actual starts, and long notice periods are among the biggest drivers of that leakage.
How Employers Work Around the Constraint
Companies that hire well treat the notice period as a known obstacle and design around it. They engage candidates earlier and keep them warm through the notice window. They offer flexible joining arrangements, sometimes staggering start dates, allowing a remote ramp-up, or letting the new hire begin paperwork and training before they’re fully released.
They also fund buyouts, reimbursing a candidate’s notice recovery to pull the start date forward, which has become common for in-demand roles despite the tax cost noted earlier.
Fixing the rest of the funnel helps, too. The deeper the bench of viable candidates, the less any single 90-day notice can stall a critical hire, which is why our guide on building a talent pipeline treats pipeline depth as the real insurance against long notice periods rather than the buyout cheque.
The Debate Around 90-Day Notice Periods
No notice convention in India is argued over more than the 90-day clause, and the two sides genuinely talk past each other.
From the business side, the case is retention and continuity. India’s IT services sector spent years battling attrition that peaked above 20% during the post-pandemic hiring frenzy, and long notice periods became a defensive tool: making exits slower and costlier discourages impulsive job-hopping and buys time to manage complex handovers.
From the employee side, 90 days can feel punitive. It delays career moves, risks competing offers lapsing, and, in a hostile situation, traps someone in a job they’re trying to leave. Critics argue it shifts the cost of the employer’s retention strategy onto the individual.
Notice Period Management: Best Practices for Employers
Most notice period pain is preventable. The disputes that reach a labour tribunal almost always trace back to something that could have been fixed cheaply at the contract or policy stage.
Get the Contract and Policy Right First
The single biggest source of disputes is ambiguity in the appointment letter. A clause should state the notice period, whether pay in lieu is allowed, and exactly how a buyout is calculated, including whether it is based on basic pay or full salary. Spelling this out costs nothing at the drafting stage.
Alongside it, the notice policy should be consistent: the same rules applied to similar cases, with any exceptions documented and justified. Selective enforcement, waiving notice for a favoured leaver while holding another to the full term, is where claims of unfair treatment begin.
Manage the Handover Before the Exit
A notice period is only useful if the knowledge actually transfers, and that doesn’t happen by itself in the final week. Build handover into the period from day one, with a documented checklist of what needs to move, to whom, and by when. For roles with client relationships or critical system access, sequence the transition deliberately: introduce successors early, wind down system access toward the end.
Run a Real Exit Process
Clearances, the exit interview, the full and final settlement, and the relieving and experience letters should follow a defined sequence so nothing falls through the cracks. Beyond the mechanics, a structured exit interview is one of the most underused diagnostic tools an employer has.
Done honestly, it surfaces the patterns behind why people leave, which is worth far more over time than any single notice period.
Communicate Expectations in Writing
Tell the departing employee what’s required during the notice period, attendance, deliverables, and documentation, and put it in writing. Most disputes over whether someone was properly served come down to a gap between what the employer assumed and what the employee understood.
A short written note at the start of the period removes the ambiguity that later turns into a settlement dispute or a withheld relieving letter.
What Employees Should Do During a Notice Period
The notice period is also a reputation period. How someone leaves tends to follow them into a reference check at the very next job, and in India’s tightly networked industries, a former manager’s offhand comment can carry more weight than a polished CV.
Leave the Work in Good Shape
The handover is the part most within an employee’s control and the part most remembered afterwards. Document ongoing work, brief whoever takes over, and leave files, processes, and credentials in a state a stranger could pick up.
A clean handover earns the goodwill that later becomes a positive reference; a sloppy one is what gets remembered when someone phones to ask about you. Staying professional through the period matters for the same reason: relationships outlast the role.
Understand the Money Before You Commit
Know how your buyout, leave encashment, and full and final settlement work before you fix a release date or sign a new offer. The buyout basis, basic pay versus full salary, can swing the number significantly; accrued leave may be encashable rather than usable during notice, and the settlement nets everything owed against everything recoverable.
Most unpleasant surprises here are avoidable with a single clarifying conversation with HR early in the period.
Secure Your Exit Documents
Get your relieving letter, experience letter, and settlement statement, and check each for accuracy. These documents matter for the next employer’s verification and for statutory continuity of benefits like the provident fund and gratuity.
A missing or incorrect relieving letter can stall a new joining date even when you did everything right, so chase them down before your last day, while you still have internal contacts who can move them along.
Line Up the Next Move Realistically
Match your new start date to your actual release date, not your optimistic one. Be honest with the incoming employer about when you can genuinely join, factoring in the full notice period unless a buyout is confirmed in writing.
Overpromising a start date you can’t hit, on the assumption that your current employer will release you early, is one of the most common ways a smooth transition turns into a scramble.
In the End…
The most useful shift in thinking about notice periods is to stop treating them as a penalty and start treating them as a transition mechanism. That’s what they are, in law and in practice.
For employers, the lesson is that clarity and consistency do almost all the work. A well-drafted clause, an even-handed policy, and a real handover process prevent the disputes that arise from vague contracts and selective enforcement.
For employees, the lesson is to read the clause before signing, understand the money before resigning, and leave well. A clean exit is an asset you carry into the next role.
Notice periods, handled properly, are less about legal technicalities and more about managing the end of one chapter so the next one starts cleanly, for both sides.
FAQs
What is the standard notice period in India?
There is no single legal standard. Notice periods in India typically range from 15 days for probationary and junior roles to 90 days for senior, IT services, and managerial positions, with 30 and 60 days common in between. For most white-collar employees the figure is set by the employment contract, not by statute.
Can an employer force you to serve the full notice period?
No. An employer cannot legally compel an employee to keep working. In Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. v. Rupa Chakraborty (2015), the Calcutta High Court held that an employer may recover salary for unserved notice but cannot force someone to continue. Recovery is allowed; compulsion is not.
How does a notice period buyout work?
A buyout lets an employee leave early by paying the employer for the unserved notice days, usually calculated on basic pay or a defined salary component rather than full CTC. The amount is typically netted against the full and final settlement. A buyout is only available if the contract allows it or the other party agrees.
Is a 90-day notice period legal in India?
Yes, for non-workmen. A 90-day clause is enforceable under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, because notice length is a contractual term, not a statutory one. However, courts can strike down excessively long clauses as an unreasonable restraint of trade under Section 27, especially when applied to junior or mid-level staff.
What is the difference between garden leave and salary in lieu of notice?
On garden leave, the employee stays on the payroll with full salary and benefits but does no work during the notice period. With salary in lieu of notice, the relationship ends early and the notice days are simply paid out. Garden leave keeps the employee employed; salary in lieu ends the employment sooner.
Can a company withhold a relieving letter over a notice dispute?
Barring proven misconduct, relieving and experience letters are the employee’s due. Withholding them over a buyout or notice dispute is poor practice and legally weak, since the next employer’s background verification often requires them and a delay can stall a new joining date.
