High Court Ruling on Withholding Experience Certificate for Disputed Financial Claims
Parties: Nandkishore Shenoy v. Tata Infotech Ltd. & Ors.
The employee resigned from his engineering role to take up an offer with another multinational corporation. The employer contended that the employee breached a 24-month training agreement and refused to issue both his relieving letter and experience certificate until a penalty of ₹2,50,000 was deposited. Without the experience certificate, the employee's onboarding at the new organization was stalled.
The Bombay High Court held that an employer has no legal lien over an employee's factual employment record. While an employer may file a civil suit for recovery of disputed financial claims or training expenditures if legally enforceable, it cannot hold an employee's career to ransom by withholding service records. Denying an experience certificate violates the employee's fundamental right to livelihood under Article 21. The Court ordered the employer to unconditionally issue the experience certificate within 7 days.