Is It Legal for My Employer to Impose a Penalty After I Resigned and Declined a New Project?

Hi All, I have been working in this company for the past 3.5 years, and I resigned on 26th December 2018 after being rejected by Client A, for which I had interviewed earlier that month. On February 8th, 2019, I received an email and call about a project discussion where I was being persuaded to withdraw my resignation and work for a year on the new project at Client B's location. Both Client A and B are the same clients but with different locations. Now, they wish to impose a high penalty, even more than my three months' salary. They have withheld my four months of salary. Is this even legal? Thank you.

No doubt, the employer has the prerogative/right to accept or not accept the resignation tendered by a person employed by him/her, but this privilege/right is not at all absolute or arbitrary under employment, which is a contract between two equal parties. The acceptance of resignation is regulated by the period of notice to be given by either party. So, the employer, operating/honoring the contract, needs to act, and it will be unilateral to force the employed person to accept another assignment during the operation of resignation terms & conditions, which will not withstand scrutiny of laws. Hence, unlawful.

Kritarth Team

11.3.19