Can My Employer Refuse My Resignation Despite Offering to Pay for Notice Period?

My appointment letter mentions the line, "At the discretion of the Company, you may be relieved any time after accepting your resignation without paying salary in lieu of the unexpired notice period."

Does this mean that I cannot be relieved if the company does not want to? Can you please answer?

I resigned from my current employer with a 15-day notice period instead of the required 3 months. I have informed them that I am willing to pay for the unexpired notice period and have completed all pending assignments. However, they are still not accepting the resignation.

What should I do?

The clause to which you are referring was added in the appointment letter favoring the employer's side. This means it is the employer's decision whether to allow you to serve the notice period or to relieve you immediately based on your resignation without paying any salary for the notice period.

Now that you have resigned and are willing to serve a 15-day notice period instead of 3 months, it is at the discretion of the employer whether to accept money from you or require you to complete the full notice period due to the volume of work at hand.

Please follow up with your HR manager and request an amicable relieving process.

The condition, "At the discretion of the company, you may be relieved at any time after accepting your resignation without paying salary in lieu of the unexpired notice period," implies that you can also resign at your discretion in the same manner. Consequently, the company would not be able to sustain any legal action regarding the unserved notice period.

However, there could be adverse consequences at a personal level in the future that need to be dispassionately weighed before adopting this particular course of action.