1) claim of company to recover Rs 6 lakhs is barred by limitation
2) company can send legal notice before invocation of arbitration clause
3) you can invoke arbitration clause in your contract for resolution of disputes
Employer not issuing Relieving Letter
I was employed in a company as General Manager - Government Business. In January 2014, due to certain differences with my management, I offered to resign and be a business partner. My resignation was accepted and I was relieved from February 1, 2014 but I was not issued the Relieving Letter on that day. Instead, on April 14, 2014 I received a legal notice from the employer's advocates with certain allegations and a demand to refund Rs.6 lakhs. I replied to the notice on May 13, 2014. Thereafter, it was a total standstill. On October 14, 2017, I sent another mail seeking resolution of the matter. To this mail, I received another letter from the lawyers dated October 17, 2017 which reiterates the averments made in the earlier legal notice.And thereafter, there has been another standstill. On January 16, 2019 I wrote to an independent Director of the company and on March 12, 1019, I wrote to the GM-HRwho has been handling my matter since February 2014, seeking decisive resolution of the matter. All these mails have not yielded any replies or results. Is it legal for the company to withhold my relieving letter for 5 years? Do the lawyers not realize that the Limitation Act would have applied on April 14, 2017 and thereafter, the Company has not grounds to prolong the matter further? I did not realize that the appointment letter had a Arbitration Clause, which I did not realise till recently. Nevertheless, is it not obligatory for the company to resort to Arbitration before sending me the legal notice? What are the legal options that I can have to seek redressal? The company is an affiliate of a large industrial group which has a big national brand.
Asked 6 years ago in Labour
8 Answers
1. Since refusal to pay our dues is a dispute you can invoke arbitration cause and file an application in high court for appointment of an arbitrator.
2. In the alternative you can lodge a complaint of cheating and criminal breach of trust against the directors of the company who are responsible for withholding your money.
3. Your ;legal recourse has nothing to do with the size of the company which is depriving your legitimate claim.
So take resort to the remedies as advised above without further delay.
You can complaint the same to office of labour commissioner office or approach labour court
First of all lodge a complaint with the local police for harassment, cheating and forgery against the company and its director for involving you falsely to hurt your reputation because it is strange that matter of relieving letter they have kept linger on for five years or the matter for such a long time , they may in the meantime may forged the documents or many other things they can create so now there remains nothing and proceed against this criminal conspiracy.
Why are you running after a relieving letter - just for a piece of paper, you are continuously extending the limitation to recover demanded money.
Stop asking for RL, if company itself issue fine otherwise forget lest you may receive letter on the cost of 6 lacs + interest + litigation cost.
Dear sir,
At this point it is best to send a befitting reply to the legal notice to the company and accusing them of delaying your relieving letter since these 5 years stating our grounds. kindly note, Arbitration clause has to be invoked by the parties together. They cant do it unless you agree.
you can contact me for consultation. if any.
Regards,
YUGANSHU SHARMA
ADVOCATE
You had been keeping quite for all these years except to have reminded them ion or or two occasions sporadically.
You have not justified the reasons for your your own casualness in this regard, not only that there may not be any necessity for a relieving letter after five years of leaving the service hence you had been keeping quite all the while.
You did not bother to take any legal steps when you received the lawyer's notice for the second time during the year 2017 and slept over the issue till the year 2019.
If you were really interested in getting the matter resolved there are plenty of legal ways by which you could have found solution.
Any action taken in this belated stage may not fetch you proper or fruitful results especially when you dont have any reasons to offer for this inordinate delay in getting this issue resolved from your side.
However yo may discuss with the local advocate and see if there can be any solution that can be obtained by taking any legal steps taken in this regard at this stage especially when you say that the company is an affiliate to a large industrial group which has a big national brand.
No it is not legal for company to hold your relieving letter.
No the company cannot directly go for arbitration they can send legal notice.
You can file suit for mandatory injunction to company to issue your relieving letter.
