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: Being terminated during notice period is legally possible, but only in the way your contract allows it. You can claim unpaid wages, encashment of earned leave and any notice pay the contract actually promises, and Indian courts do not order reinstatement in a private, non-workman job. Three months' salary is not automatic. The entity that issued your offer letter and credited your salary is normally the one you have to sue, even if the people running the show sit in another country.
Nikhil Deshmukh had been out of work for three months when he took a support role at a small e-commerce outfit in Pune. Eight to ten people on the rolls. The shift ran on US hours, so his working day ended around midnight. He asked for overtime pay or a raise. Neither came, so he resigned in March 2025, on a contract that set a 90-day notice period.
Mid-April brought a public holiday. He closed his queue at 12 a.m., logged off and went to sleep. At 3 a.m. his phone rang. He had taken these calls before, several times, and he let it ring out. On the Monday, the founder told him over a phone call that he was terminated for not supporting a client that night. No letter. No charge sheet. No meeting.
The offer letter, he found out later, had been issued by a different, registered company, and the salary credits came from a third account altogether.
He approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao after an earlier attempt through a general practitioner had gone nowhere. Advocate Sudhir Rao's familiarity with employment-contract disputes and the way thinly structured entities like these are run helped secure a favourable outcome for the client.
Key Facts of the Case
- Resigned in March 2025 while on a contract that set a 90-day notice period and a six-month probation, after which confirmation was due.
- Terminated orally on a Monday following the holiday incident, with no written order, no show-cause notice and no inquiry.
- The stated reason was failure to support a client during a 3 a.m. call on a declared public holiday, though the founder also told him his work had been good.
- The offer letter was issued by a registered entity that was not the one he actually worked for, and salary was credited from a separate account.
- Final settlement covered salary only up to the last day worked. No notice pay, no encashment of roughly 15 accrued leave days.
- The client holds audio recordings of the resignation discussion, the termination call, and some chat messages.
- The founders were based in the US, and the operating entity was not registered in India at the relevant time.
- He later sent an angry, abusive message to the former employer. Nothing threatening. It exists nonetheless.
The Direct Legal Answer
Can my employer terminate me during my notice period?
Yes, if the contract permits it. Resigning does not freeze the relationship. But if the contract says termination during notice needs written notice, an inquiry, or payment in lieu, then skipping any of that is a breach, and breach is what you sue on. An oral dismissal with no paper trail is a procedural weakness on the employer's side, and it is worth arguing.
Am I entitled to three months' salary?
Not automatically. Notice pay is a contractual entitlement, not a statutory one for most private employees. If your offer letter is silent on what happens when the employer terminates you mid-notice, you fall back on damages for breach of contract, which is a much narrower claim than three months of salary. You recover what you actually lost, not what you hoped for.
Can I claim my 15 unused leave days?
Often yes, but the source is your contract, your company policy or the state Shops and Establishments rules. Encashment of earned leave is a settled entitlement in most organised setups. Keep the leave records.
Which company do I sue?
Normally the one on the offer letter and the payslip, because that is who your contract is with. The other entities can be added as parties where the facts show the arrangement was used to duck obligations. This is where a thin, one-sided record hurts you, and where a detailed consultation earns its fee.
Does my angry message to the ex-boss damage my case?
Probably not. Rude words are not a legal claim against you. Stop sending more, though. Anything that reads as a threat or a demand for money can be twisted into something else.
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.
Collect your offer letter, appointment terms, payslips, bank statements and the relieving letter before you do anything else. Read the clause on termination during notice carefully, since it decides your case.
Stop communicating with the employer directly. Route everything through a written legal notice, which also fixes the date for limitation purposes.
This category of dispute turns on narrow procedural and evidentiary points, and advocates who handle employment matters regularly tend to spot them faster than a general practitioner. That difference shows up in which forum is chosen and in how the electronic evidence is placed on record.
Applicable Sections of Law
- Section 73, Indian Contract Act, 1872 governs compensation for loss caused by a breach of contract, and Section 74 governs compensation where a sum is named as payable on breach.
- Article 55, Limitation Act, 1963 gives three years for a suit for compensation for breach of contract.
- Section 15, Payment of Wages Act, 1936 covers claims for deducted or delayed wages, subject to the Act's wage
- Section 15, Payment of Wages Act, 1936 covers deducted or delayed wages — but only for employees within the Act's wage ceiling, and only for wages properly so called. Notice pay and damages for breach sit outside it. Applications under the Act are also time-bound, generally twelve months from the date the payment fell due.
- Section 25F, Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 — where the person answers to the definition of "workman" under that Act and the establishment is an "industry", retrenchment needs one month's notice or pay in lieu plus fifteen days' average pay for each completed year of service. Supervisory and managerial staff drawing above the notified wage ceiling fall outside. Whether a small support team crosses these lines is a question of fact, not something to assume.
- Sections 14 and 41(e), Specific Relief Act, 1963 — a contract of personal service is not specifically enforceable. No civil court will order an employer to take you back or to keep you on. This is why a private, non-workman termination case is a money case, and only a money case.
- Article 7, Limitation Act, 1963 gives three years for a claim for wages; Article 55 gives three years for compensation for breach of contract, running from the date the contract is broken.
- Section 20, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 decides where the suit is filed — ordinarily where the defendant carries on business or where the cause of action arose. With overseas founders and an Indian registered entity, this is the provision that quietly fixes your forum.
- Order XXXVII, CPC allows a summary suit on a written contract for a liquidated money demand. If the notice pay is a fixed, computable sum under the offer letter, this route can be faster and puts the burden on the employer to seek leave to defend.
- Sections 57 and 63, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 — chats and call recordings are electronic records. They are usable, but where genuineness is disputed the court expects the certificate under Section 63(4), signed by the person in control of the device. The Supreme Court's settled reading of the old Section 65B of the Evidence Act still shapes how strictly these certificates are treated.
- Sections 316 and 318, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — criminal breach of trust and cheating. These matter only if the entity-switching was itself a dishonest inducement at the hiring stage. A thinly run company is not a crime.
- Section 351, BNS — criminal intimidation, which becomes relevant only if a message from either side stops being rude and starts being a threat.
- Shops and Establishments legislation of the State — leave, hours, notice and service conditions for covered establishments. In Maharashtra that is the Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017. Coverage thresholds and leave rules vary from state to state, so the state matters.
I was terminated during my notice period — which court do I actually go to?
For a private employee who is not a "workman", it is the civil court that has pecuniary jurisdiction over the sum claimed, sitting where the employer's registered office is or where the cause of action arose. That is Section 20 CPC, and on these facts it usually means the district where the company on the offer letter is registered — not where the founders sit.
Before you file anything, read the offer letter once more for an arbitration clause. If there is one, a civil suit can be met with an application under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and the matter gets pushed into arbitration. That changes the cost, the timeline and the forum. It is the single most common thing people miss.
If the person qualifies as a workman, a parallel route exists under the Industrial Disputes Act, but the practical question — whether supervisory support staff at a small e-commerce outfit are workmen — depends on duties and salary, and the answer is not obvious from a designation on a piece of paper.
Where wages alone are in dispute and the salary is within the Act's ceiling, there is also the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act. It moves faster than a civil suit but will not entertain a notice-pay claim dressed up as wages.
The criminal route, in practice, goes nowhere for a salary dispute. Police treat these as civil claims and, absent a clear inducement at the hiring stage, they are right to.
What the evidence needs to do
Two things decide cases like this: the termination clause, and proof of what was said.
- Keep the original handset. A forwarded copy of a recording is worth far less than the device it was made on.
- Do not edit, trim or re-record anything. Preserve the file as it stands, with its metadata.
- Pull the bank statement showing every salary credit, and the mandate or narration that identifies the paying entity. The gap between the offer letter company and the paying account is your strongest documentary point.
- Preserve the leave records and the last payslip, because the encashment claim turns on the balance shown there.
- Put a date on the termination. Send one written communication asking for the outstanding dues and the reason in writing, and keep the proof of dispatch.
On costs and time: a consultation fee is payable up front, and any advocate you approach should give you a written estimate of stage-wise costs before filing rather than a round figure on the phone. A civil money claim of this size typically runs through several hearings spread over months, and a summary suit either ends earlier or converts into an ordinary suit if the employer gets leave to defend. Anyone promising a fast, certain result is guessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
My employer never gave me a termination letter. Does that help me?
It helps, but less than people expect. An oral termination is harder for the employer to justify and easier for you to prove as a breach of a written-notice clause. It does not, by itself, create an entitlement to three months' salary.
Can I claim salary for the full 90-day notice period?
Only if the contract says the employer must pay in lieu of notice when it terminates you. If it is silent, your claim is for damages — what you actually lost, net of what you earned or could reasonably have earned elsewhere. That figure is usually smaller and needs evidence of your job search.
Which entity do I sue if the offer letter, the salary account and the people running things are all different?
Start with the entity on the offer letter and the payslip, since that is who you contracted with, and consider adding the others where the record shows the arrangement was used to avoid obligations. Adding parties is a pleading decision, not an afterthought, and it needs documents, not suspicion.
Will my angry message to the former boss be used against me?
Rudeness is not a cause of action. A demand that reads as extortion or a threat is a different thing. Send nothing further, and route all communication through the notice.
Do the 3 a.m. calls and the public holiday matter at all?
They matter to the reasonableness of the reason given, and they matter if your contract or the applicable Shops and Establishments rules regulate hours and holiday work. They do not, on their own, make the termination illegal.
Is there a deadline I am already close to?
Three years from the breach for a contract claim, three years for wages, and twelve months for a Payment of Wages application from the date the payment fell due. The shortest of those is the one that catches people out.
Can I be reinstated?
Not in a private, non-workman job. Courts award money for breach of contract; they do not force an employer to keep you on.
What to send the chamber
If you are in this position, send the offer letter and appointment terms, the resignation email or letter with its date, the last three payslips, the bank statement showing the salary credits, and any proof of the termination call or message. Add a two-line note: what you were told, by whom, and on what date. Two lines is enough to start.
Nothing here promises an outcome, and on some sets of facts there may be very little worth arguing — if the contract permits termination without notice and the dues have been paid, that is the honest answer and you should hear it before you spend money.
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This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Please consult an advocate before acting.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India