One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: A company not giving NOC after your CS training has already begun is a common problem, but the trainer cannot lawfully charge you six months of stipend as the price of a signature. Under the ICSI training framework a voluntary transfer does need the existing trainer's no objection certificate, and that means serving the prescribed notice period properly instead of deleting the training record from the portal on your own. The workable route is a written transfer request, documented follow-up and escalation to the Institute.
Nikhil Menon cleared his CS Professional exams in the first attempt. What stood between him and membership was 21 months of practical training, and he had finished six of them at Thermax Limited in Pune. The work had dried up. He spent his days filing papers nobody read and asking for assignments that never came.
He had joined in November 2024. By May 2025 he wanted out. Another trainer was willing to take him, and that is when the trouble started. The company would not issue the no objection certificate his transfer needed. When his brother pushed, the response from HR was blunt: the NOC would come, but only if he returned the entire six months of stipend he had already been paid.
He tried the other door. He removed the training period from the ICSI portal himself, hoping to start clean somewhere else. The company refused consent to that too. Weeks of emails and phone calls went nowhere, and the new trainer's offer had a shelf life.
He approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao in July 2025. Advocate Sudhir Rao and his office took it from there: a properly drafted transfer request, the applicable notice period formally offered, and a structured escalation to the Institute with the correspondence annexed. The NOC was issued. No repayment was made. Advocate Sudhir Rao's familiarity with how the ICSI training framework and the portal actually operate is what moved a file that had been sitting still for two months. The account here is the trainee's; the company has not been heard.
Key Facts of the Case
- The trainee had cleared the CS Professional examinations and needed 21 months of practical training to complete the requirement.
- Six months of training had been completed with a company in Pune; the remaining 15 months were pending.
- The trainee wanted a voluntary transfer to a different trainer, which under the ICSI framework requires the existing trainer's no objection certificate.
- The existing trainer offered no meaningful work or learning opportunity during the period served.
- The trainer demanded repayment of the entire six months of stipend already paid as the condition for issuing the NOC.
- The trainee deleted the training period on the ICSI portal unilaterally, and the trainer refused consent to that deletion.
- No written transfer request or formal notice had been served before the escalation.
- The dispute was civil in nature, arising from the training arrangement and the institute's training framework, not from any offence.
The Direct Legal Answer
Is the company not giving NOC legally allowed?
Partly. For a voluntary transfer, the ICSI training framework does require the existing trainer's no objection certificate. So a company's refusal, on its own, is not automatically illegal. What it cannot do is attach a monetary condition that has no basis in the engagement letter. A stipend lawfully paid for work already done is not a refundable deposit. Demanding it back as the price of an NOC is a demand without consideration.
Can he just delete the training period from the portal?
No, and this is where people hurt their own case. Unilateral deletion does not terminate the training arrangement. It creates a record problem, and it hands the trainer a legitimate reason to withhold consent.
What if the company simply refuses consent?
Then the dispute moves up. A written request, the prescribed notice period served properly, and a complaint to the Institute's training authorities are the sequence. If the trainer still refuses without cause, the demand and the refusal can be challenged before a civil court.
Advice in Such Cases
Consult with Lawyer: The very basic and important step to start is talk to Lawyer / advocate. You should not hesitate in paying his consultation fee i.e. might be in range of Rs. 10,000 to 50,000 depends case to case. He is helping you in this situation to come out. He is expert in the domain and can help you explain the procedure which you might have never explored. A good lawyer can get the issues resolved much faster than you think.
Put everything in writing from day one. Verbal requests to HR disappear the moment the officer changes.
Serve the notice period the framework prescribes rather than walking out. An offer to serve notice removes the trainer's best argument.
Keep the portal untouched until you have advice in hand. Screenshots of the training record, with dates, are worth more than a corrected record you created yourself.
Matters like this turn on procedural and documentary nuances, and advocates who handle them regularly tend to spot the gaps that general practitioners miss.
Applicable Sections of Law
Company Secretary training is governed by the Company Secretaries Act, 1980 and the training framework that the Institute of Company Secretaries of India administers under it. On the contract side, the Indian Contract Act, 1872 does most of the work. Section 10 sets out what makes an agreement enforceable. Section 23 renders an agreement void where its object is unlawful or opposed to public policy, which is the hook for a demand with no basis in the engagement letter. Section 27 voids agreements in restraint of trade. Section 73 governs compensation for loss caused by breach, and Section 74 deals with a stipulated penalty. Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 govern temporary injunctions.
Jurisdiction — Where to File the Case
The first forum is not a court. It is the Institute's own training machinery, because the training record, the transfer and the portal all sit under its control. A complaint there costs nothing and often resolves the matter.
If that fails, a civil suit lies before the Civil Judge having pecuniary jurisdiction over the value of the relief sought, under Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Territorial jurisdiction follows Section 20 of the Code: the place where the defendant resides or carries on business, or where the cause of action arose. A company's arbitrary refusal, if the Institute acts at its behest, can also be tested before the High Court under Article 226, though that is a discretionary remedy and not the first step. Getting the forum wrong costs months.
Limitation Period
For a suit seeking specific performance of the training arrangement or a declaration that the demand is unlawful, Article 54 of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963 gives three years from the date fixed for performance, or where no date is fixed, from the date the plaintiff has notice that performance is refused. For compensation for breach of contract, Article 55 gives three years from the date the contract is broken. The clock usually starts when the NOC is refused in writing, which is another reason to force a written refusal. Section 5 of the Act allows delay to be condoned in appeals and applications, not in suits.
Interim Reliefs Available
Interim relief is often the whole case. A temporary injunction under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 can restrain the trainer from treating the trainee as having abandoned training or from making a negative report to the Institute while the dispute is alive. A mandatory injunction can be sought where the refusal is plainly untenable. Where there is a genuine apprehension that the trainer may part with assets to defeat a decree, Order 38 Rule 5 of the Code permits attachment before judgment, though the threshold is high and courts do not grant it lightly. Status quo orders are common in training disputes. Move early: relief granted after the training window lapses is worth little.
If You Are the Victim
- Stop all informal negotiation. Send one written transfer request recording the date, the reason and the notice period you are offering.
- Do not delete, edit or re-enter anything on the ICSI portal on your own initiative.
- Preserve every email, message and call log, including the stipend demand, in its original form.
- Escalate to the Institute's training authorities with a covering letter and annexures, and keep proof of dispatch.
- If the refusal continues without cause, get a civil suit drafted promptly, because limitation runs from the refusal.
Documents You Must Keep Ready
- Aadhaar
- Aadhaar and PAN copies, and your ICSI student registration details.
- Your CS Professional mark sheets and the certificate of registration for practical training.
- The original training engagement letter or appointment letter you signed with the company, along with any annexures or internal training policy.
- Bank statements and salary slips showing every stipend payment received, month by month.
- Screenshots of the ICSI training portal showing the training record, with visible dates.
- Every email, message and call log exchanged with HR or the training manager, in original form.
- Your written transfer request and the notice of resignation or transfer, with proof of dispatch and delivery.
- Any written refusal, including the demand for repayment of stipend.
- The new trainer's consent or offer letter, and the date by which it lapses.
What to Do First — In Order
Sequence matters more than speed here. Send one written transfer request that records the date you joined, the date you are seeking to transfer, the reason, and the notice period you are offering to serve. Keep it short and factual. Do not argue the merits in that letter, and do not mention the stipend demand as a grievance yet — let the refusal come in writing first.
Then wait out the notice period you offered, or the one the engagement letter or the training framework requires, whichever applies. Serve it. Do not walk away early. An offer to serve notice, honoured, strips the trainer of the strongest ground for refusing consent.
Only after that does the complaint to the Institute go in, with the correspondence annexed and proof of dispatch. If the refusal still stands and there is no cause behind it, a civil suit is drafted. The gap between a written refusal and the filing is where most cases are won or lost, because limitation starts running from the refusal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a company demand repayment of my stipend before giving the NOC?
It can demand it. Whether it can enforce that demand is a different question, and usually the answer is no. A stipend paid for training or work already performed is not a deposit and not an advance. Unless your engagement letter contains a clause making the stipend refundable on early exit — and such a clause would itself be tested for fairness — the demand has no contractual foundation. Paying it voluntarily is the mistake to avoid.
My company is not giving NOC for CS training transfer. Can I transfer without it?
Not as a voluntary transfer, no. The framework requires the existing trainer's no objection certificate for a voluntary transfer, and trying to route around it by editing the portal yourself creates a bigger problem than the one you are trying to solve. If consent is being withheld without cause, the route is escalation and, if needed, court — not a workaround on the portal.
What is the notice period I must serve before transferring?
It depends on two things: what your engagement letter with the trainer says, and what the Institute's training framework prescribes. Where the two conflict, the framework governs the training record and the engagement letter governs the contract. Read both, quote the applicable clause in your written request, and offer the longer of the two. Offering more notice than required costs you weeks; offering less gives the trainer a reason to refuse.
How long does the Institute take to act on a complaint?
There is no fixed timeline. A well-documented complaint with a covering letter, a chronological index and annexures usually moves faster than one that is written as a grievance narrative. Expect weeks, not days. This is exactly why the written request and the notice period should be completed before the complaint goes in — the Institute is being asked to act on a record, and the record has to be clean.
Do I have to go to court for this?
Often not. The Institute's training machinery is the first and cheapest forum. A civil suit under Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 is the fallback, and interim relief under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 can be the difference between preserving your training window and losing months. On these facts — an unconnected repayment demand as the price of a signature — there is usually something to argue. That is not the same as saying every refusal is actionable. If the trainer has a documented reason for withholding consent, or if the engagement letter genuinely makes the stipend refundable, there may be little to challenge, and you should be told that early rather than after a year of litigation.
Can I join the new trainer while the dispute is pending?
Only with the existing trainer's consent or with the Institute's permission. Joining elsewhere before the record is regularised risks the earlier period being disallowed, which is worse than waiting. If the new trainer's offer has an expiry date, ask them for a written extension while the transfer is resolved — most will give one.
If you are sitting on a refused NOC right now, the clock is already running and the paperwork you do this week is the paperwork that decides the case. Write to the chamber at /contact-us or book a slot at /book with a two-line note and the documents that matter most: the engagement letter, the date of joining, the date you sought transfer, and the written refusal if you have one. Order them by date. That is enough to start.
Disclaimer: This article is general information about Indian law and the ICSI training framework. It is not legal advice on your own situation, and no advocate-client relationship arises from reading it or from writing to the chamber.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India