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Is bond legally valid in India?

 
Greenhorn
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I have a job offer as a Software Engineer in hand. The company is India.They are paying Indian Rupees 18k per month.But at the time of joiningI have to sign a bond for 3 years.And if I break the bond a sum of 3 lakhs is to be paid.

Two sureties are to be signed.These are the conditions.What I want to know is that if I break the bond and if the compnay go to the court will I have have to paid this money. Is this bond( which is a one way contract) legally valid in India?

Can the company sue me if I break the bond? I am confused about
joining the company. Plz give me some advice.
Regards,
james Joseph
 
Ranch Hand
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Hi,
Wow, this is interesting. In Taiwan and Singapore, one-way contract is illegal too.
Regards,
MCao
 
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As Far as I know, this type of one way contract is illegal in India. Check with a lawyer.
 
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AFAIK these types of bonds hardly have any value.If they give you some kind of professional training or give money for that exam,company might go to court.Even if the bond is legal,no company will be interested in following that suite as legaal procedure takes a lot of time.Tata Consultancy Services have done this in the past with no sucess.
 
James Joseph
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Thank u guys for your reply.

The company will give me a 3 month training.
The bond says that the employer can terminate this contract at any time
with a one month notice. So it is one way bond ,right?
 
Matt Cao
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Hi,
Sorry pal, it is two ways bond. I would consider Capablanca words because company only go after you, if you are making top bucks. But then with a good lawyer, you also could challenge the bond over fairness. BTW 3 years are fast. Unless the living conditional in India is so gross that you have to count the days to get out.
Regards,
MCao
 
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Hi Joseph..
BTW which is this INDIAN company ?? !!!
Well DONT JOIN this company.. IT market in India is booming currently and if your skill sets are related to Java then you have lots of other companies waiting for your service.
Bonded emoployee is bull shit.
The companies always take the advantage of personal situations and exploit the IT techies in India. Never go for such things. 3 years is too long time.. IT industry itself will change in 3 years man.
Cheers.
 
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Hi James,
To start with bondage labor is illegal in India and so are one sided bonds. But still many companies ask their employees(esp freshers) to sign these kinds of illegal bonds, just to scare them so that they dont run away after completing the training.
Even in my company freshers are asked to sign such a bond(1 year in this case). Even than many ppl leaves the company, breaking the bond and i have never seen my company sueing any such employee(and legally they can't). But this is applicable only than when the bond is one-sided, so i will advice u to consult some indian lawyer before signing such a bond.
 
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Hi,
I can tell about my friend's experience. He was working with TCS and had signed the bond , ditched the company and went to US. TCS served him a notice after around 4-5 years and he made a out of court settlement.
I think because companies state in bond letter that they will be providing you training etc, they may be legally entiltled to recover costs from you if you leave before stipulated period.
(Anyway, what is the real cost of the training which they provide is highly questionable)
 
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Originally posted by James Joseph:
I have a job offer as a Software Engineer in hand. The company is India.They are paying Indian Rupees 18k per month.But at the time of joiningI have to sign a bond for 3 years.And if I break the bond a sum of 3 lakhs is to be paid.

Two sureties are to be signed.These are the conditions.What I want to know is that if I break the bond and if the compnay go to the court will I have have to paid this money. Is this bond( which is a one way contract) legally valid in India?

Can the company sue me if I break the bond? I am confused about
joining the company. Plz give me some advice.
Regards,
james Joseph


Is this bond only for you (bcoz of ur non-indian origin) or in general for all the employees? 3 yrs. is a big time even for companies who practices bond conditions.Are you a fresher? Have you tried contacting any of the employee of that company? It can help.
Regarding breaking of the bond, well there isn't no hard and fast rule like you can do it easily or you can't, it depends upon the company !!
Moreover if you are ready to work in India you have options, search for it.
 
Greenhorn
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Can any one clearly differentiate one-way bond and two-way bond
 
Varun Khanna
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Originally posted by Apan Raj:
Can any one clearly differentiate one-way bond and two-way bond


IMO in one way bond : If bond is of X amount then on leaving the company employee will be liable to pay that amount to Employer. Thats it !!!
whereas in two way bond in addition to the scenario mentioned above, if the employer lays off the employee, Employer will be liable to pay X amount to employee. Hence it two way.
[ November 06, 2003: Message edited by: V�r�n Kha�n� ]
 
Arjun Shastry
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I don't think these are legal terms .But I think oneway bond means"You must be loyal to us for a period of X years,if you leave,w'll take some legal action(which doesn't makes sense!!),depending on resources,we will try to give you some training" Two way bond means"You must be loyal to us for a period of X years,W'll give salary raise of Rs Y ,X/Z number of times,and perks etc "
 
Apan Raj
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How much is TOA( Terms of Agreement) legally valid ( In India ).
TOA is just the conditions typed in a normal paper ( not a BOND paper ) and signed by the employee without any surety.
 
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Hi James,
I really understand your predicament. I had been in that too!
I had a 4year-1 lakh bond with a company in India. I had to sign a stamp paper and my parents had to sign as witnesses(on the time of joining). Asking around my seniors ,I had gotten the impression that it was a one-way bond which was not legally valid.Then 2 years later I had to resign from my job due to relocation , which I hated to do. Work was very good,and people were also very good.
So far(1 year now) my parents have got 3-4 court notices , which they sent back without citing any reason. This is a similar experience with a couple of people who resigned from that company within the bond period.I heard that 1 of my collegue(after 3years) actually paid 1 lakh , which I dont believe. He must be out of his mind!!
So you can ask any lawyers, but I doubt if you can get any lawyers to see the document. I dont know of they give photocopies of that.
If you get very extensive training and if you leave immediatly after that, they could charge court case against you.I dont know how the verdict will be.If you are planning to do that you might as well make sure that the company cant do any harm.But that is not ethical,in my terms.May be that is the reason bonds are prevalent.
I believe that 3-4 years at your first company can give you good,deep technical skills ,after that you can decide if you want to stay or leave.that decision depends on you and how you feel about the company.
So ask your college seniors/people in the company(if possible) about this bond.I am assuming that you are a fresher or in the third year.
HTH,
Good luck,
Aparna
 
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Bonds in India are crap. Myself signed a bond for a small time company 6 yrs ago (signed by parents too),but a number of my colleagues happily broke the bond and left for better opportunities. My company did not do anything, for the fear of reputation and media.The company wanted to have a good image in the market and they continued to have.
I have not known of any indian company which has sued an employee and obtained compensation, while a few weak-hearted employees, out of sheer fear have settled out of court compensation... .
It's a shame that a country like India, used to have some small time software/bodyshopping companies owned by the local thugs/goons, who collected Employee's College Degree Certificates and passports etc as security deposit before joining.Mostly at that time, the victims happened to be freshers...After the bubble burst, I hope all such companies are extinct now.
 
L Goundalkar
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Originally posted by Vish Kumar:
Bonds in India are crap. Myself signed a bond for a small time company 6 yrs ago (signed by parents too),but a number of my colleagues happily broke the bond and left for better opportunities. My company did not do anything, for the fear of reputation and media.The company wanted to have a good image in the market and they continued to have.
I have not known of any indian company which has sued an employee and obtained compensation, while a few weak-hearted employees, out of sheer fear have settled out of court compensation... .
It's a shame that a country like India, used to have some small time software/bodyshopping companies owned by the local thugs/goons, who collected Employee's College Degree Certificates and passports etc as security deposit before joining.Mostly at that time, the victims happened to be freshers...After the bubble burst, I hope all such companies are extinct now.


Still few left.
 
L Goundalkar
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Originally posted by James Joseph:
Thank u guys for your reply.

The company will give me a 3 month training.
The bond says that the employer can terminate this contract at any time
with a one month notice. So it is one way bond ,right?


Yes it is one way. Training will be like clening bull shit.
Dont go for this, if you have not yet.
 
James Joseph
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Donno if anybody would still read this post, as my original post was some 2 years back.
I had joined that company by signing the bond. And after 3 months I left the company, not bcz the company was bad, but bcz I was too good for the company . Got some court notices for few months and then they dropped the case, may be bcz the weak contract.
Anyway I don't have any bonds/contracts rt now, and I am in a far far better position now. Of cource not in India.

I did consult lawyers and collected info along this process. I think if the company really want they can frame a bond ( yes, effectively one way, although it may sound like two way in paper ) and can sue you once u break the bond. So always consult a lawyer before signing a bond.
 
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It is really nice of you to update the thread after 2 years.
 
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I have signed a bond on stamp paper as a fresher while joining a startup which was giving decent ctc. The bond was like 4 months of my salary on the gross ctc at resignation time. The work load was too much .. There are months during this period in which my average timings in company was 14 on an average. So now I want to leave the company as I have a decent offer in my hand and good work. So I resigned and from that day onwards my managers , my CTO every one is on me. giving lectures and talking ugly to me. So I got frustrated and decided to walk away right there. This company has a notice period of 3 months . And getting idea about my frustration the company behaviour is getting worse and worse day by day. So to leave the company right now. I have to give 7 months salary. And I want to go legal for this. Is there anything I can do against the company? And what is the proper time for doing that "After giving the money and getting the exp letter" or "before that"?
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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