You cracked a product company interview. The offer letter is in your inbox. You're excited — and then you check your employment contract: 90-day notice period.
The product company wants you to start in 30-45 days. Your current employer says "mandatory 90 days." You're stuck between losing the offer and serving 3 months in a job you've already mentally left.
This guide is the complete playbook for this exact situation — based on how thousands of Indian engineers have successfully navigated it.
Always check your specific employment letter — these are typical defaults, but individual contracts vary.
Under Article 23 of the Indian Constitution and the Indian Contract Act, no employer can force you to continue working. Employment contracts are civil agreements — breach of contract leads to civil remedies (typically salary recovery), never criminal action.
If you leave without serving notice, the employer can: (1) withhold your last month's salary, (2) deduct notice period salary from your F&F settlement, and (3) mark your experience letter with "relieved without serving notice." That's the full extent of their legal recourse in practice.
Most employment contracts in India include a clause allowing payment in lieu of notice. You pay the company your salary for the days you're skipping, and they relieve you earlier. This is standard practice across all major IT companies.
Indian courts have consistently held that post-employment non-compete clauses are unenforceable under Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act. Your new employer is in a different industry (product vs service) — there is essentially no risk here.
The formula is straightforward — and the actual cost is usually lower than people fear:
| CTC (Annual) | Monthly | 60 Days Buyout | 45 Days Buyout | 30 Days Buyout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₹6 LPA | ₹50,000 | ₹1,00,000 | ₹75,000 | ₹50,000 |
| ₹8 LPA | ₹66,667 | ₹1,33,333 | ₹1,00,000 | ₹66,667 |
| ₹12 LPA | ₹1,00,000 | ₹2,00,000 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹1,00,000 |
| ₹18 LPA | ₹1,50,000 | ₹3,00,000 | ₹2,25,000 | ₹1,50,000 |
This is the exact sequence that works for most engineers at Indian service companies:
Get the signed offer letter and confirm the joining date in writing before resigning. Never resign or inform your manager before the new offer is in hand. Once you have it, check the earliest joining date the new company allows and whether they're flexible.
Your manager has more influence over early relieving than HR does. Schedule a private conversation and inform them before sending any formal resignation. Frame it positively: "I've received an opportunity I can't pass up and I wanted to tell you directly." A supportive manager can fast-track approval.
Send your resignation email with a specific request: "I am requesting early relieving by [target date] and am willing to pay the applicable notice period buyout for the remaining days." Do this in writing — email is your paper trail.
Most delays in early relieving are about knowledge transfer, not policy. Proactively document everything — write handover notes, train a colleague, create runbooks. When your manager sees you've handled the transition, early relieving becomes much easier to approve.
If your manager won't approve early relieving, escalate to HR directly. Request the formal "notice period waiver" or "early relieving with buyout" process. At TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, this is a standard HR process — use it.
The single most effective way to get early relieving approved is to complete your handover faster than expected. Create a comprehensive handover document in week 1, train your replacement proactively, and send your manager an email saying "handover is complete as of [date]." This removes the main reason managers resist early relieving.
Resign at the start or end of a project cycle, not mid-sprint. If your team has just completed a major delivery or is in a planning phase, early relieving is much easier to approve than if you resign right before a critical go-live. Plan your resignation timing around the project calendar.
Offer to be available on call or via email for 30 days after your last working day for any urgent questions. Some managers will approve early relieving in exchange for this informal safety net. Put this in writing: "I am happy to be available for any urgent technical questions via email for 30 days after my last day."
Under Indian labor law, approved medical leave during the notice period counts toward serving the notice, but typically doesn't extend it. If you have pending sick leave or medical leave, factor this into your timeline. Note: fabricating medical reasons is unethical and potentially risky — mention this only as a factual point about your leave balance.
Ask HR explicitly: "Can we sign a mutual agreement to relieve me on [date] in exchange for [buyout payment + completed handover]?" Getting this in writing as a formal mutual separation agreement is cleaner than an informal early relieving. It protects both parties and makes your experience letter cleaner.
Product companies deal with notice period situations constantly — especially when hiring from Indian IT companies. Here's how to handle the conversation:
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