Neh, non-competes aren't valid and company can't claim compensation unless you're a super high level employee and they prove your actions have caused actual damage to the company. Check out Zee vs Palki Sharma

Lawyer

As per Google Baba:   No, noncompete agreements are not legal in India under the Law of Contracts. Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872 states that any agreement that prevents someone from...

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

As per Google Baba: 

No, non-compete agreements are not legal in India under the Law of Contracts. Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act of 1872 states that any agreement that prevents someone from practising a lawful profession, trade, or business is void. Indian courts have consistently refused to enforce post-termination non-compete clauses in employment contracts. However, employers may claim compensation for loss due to violation.

Has anybody faced an issue with the non-compete agreement?

#Infosys

Non-Compete Agreement [Infosys and other companies]

Software Engineer

Non-Compete Agreement [Infosys and other companies]- Grapevine

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Hi I wanted to check, is non-compete enforceable as per Indian laws? My company wants us to sign non-compete for not joining the competition for 1 year. It's a very small and niche industry

Non- compete

Business Analyst

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

A common issue that I am usually engaged for, and see a lot of confusion amongst employees and companies, is with regard to non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Often employees are scared to sign non-competes as they feel a future move to a bigger or better employer is compromised, whereas employers want to ensure that their employees, possibly equipped with inside information of their companies, do not go and reveal or use such information to a competitor. Both parties, i.e., employees and their employers, have valid concerns. 
The first thing that an employee should be aware about is that in India, a non-compete clause is considered to only be valid for the period that the employee is employed with their employer. That means that while you’re employed to your employer, you will be barred from working for other companies or competitors of your employer. This is because of Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act,1872, which provides that “every agreement by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession or trade or business of any kind, is to that extent void”. Courts across the country have consistently held that enforcement of post termination non-compete clauses are restraint of trade and against the public policy of the country. Therefore, once you have resigned or left the job with an employer, the non-compete clause cannot be enforced. 
While this is quite an employee centric approach, it should be kept in mind that most of these judgments and rulings did not come at a time when a lot of companies are creating high value Intellectual Property Rights, especially in technology. So, there is always a possibility that for highly technical jobs, where employees are developing such Intellectual Property, court rulings may change. It is also likely that for highly important positions, such as that of a CEO, employers may pursue enforcement of non-competes due to the insider knowledge that such positions come with. 
Employees should also realize

Non-compete Clauses in India

Some context.
Worked at an early stage startup around 1.5 years ago. This startup works in the Computer Vision space and does a lot of experiments(no direction at all, will take some project from some fintech company one day, some project from healthcare, and then some project from some random company, basically these go nowhere), I worked with one of the projects that involved document processing and it got some revenue.

At my last day, I was made to sign some agreement which included non compete.

1.5 hears later, today, I’ve joined a startup that works in FinTech domain and has been doing pretty good, and they sent a BGV check to my previous employer, and those guys are saying they won’t do BGV and that I’m violating the non compete agreement. They think entire world is their competitor, honestly, they’re nothing and no one even gives a fuck about their existence.

What can I do here?

My ex-employer is messing up my background verification

Machine Learning Engineer

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

As the title suggests, I'm a lawyer and good at what I do. Haven't got anything better to do, so AMA.

Very happy to assist startups and young businesses as well!

I'm a lawyer; AMA.

Many GSIs in India have changed their notice period section to reflect 3 months by employee 1 month by employer. Is this even legal ? Can you challenge this during your employment tenure ?

Notice Period

Information Security

non compete clause. If i join a direct competitor can my current company sue me and the company

Compete Clause

Business Development Manager

I have a remote offer from a Canadian company to work with them as a service provider (not as an employee)/independent contractor.

Weirdly they have a 12 month non-compete clause in the contract. The governing laws of the contract are Canadian laws.

Can those be enforced?

Indian
B2B Marketer
6YoE
TC - $50K USD

Are non-competes enforceable in Canada?

Analyst

Even seen small startups put global non compete

Program Manager

Hello - need some urgent help ! 

Is it legal to join a competitor in the analytics consulting domain in the same project or a different project? 

Note - I did sign a joining document of an existing company which covers a Non Solicitation clause.

Joining competitor

My last company which is a early stage startup has 1 yr non compete clause in the employee agreement and which they asked us to get signed 4 months back on a very short notice to comply with investor requirements. We did it because of just compliance matter. Now I don't have good equation with them and have good offers from competitors.

Please suggest should I proceed with the offer or look for something else which doesn't fall into non compete. Please share your experiences.

Non Compete clause

One of my friends was working with Unacademy, & contributed well in Business/Revenue - first got into a bad culture and decided to exit. 

Joined another company and got back to back notices from the last org and also a notice on Cancellation of vested ESOPs. Kat gaya bhai ka! 

Stay aware guys :)

Stay away from ESOPs tuchiyapa :)

Welcome to Fintech India's Private Community

I can't join any of these 11 companies anymore:

PhonePe 
GooglePay 
RazorPay 
PineLabs 
Cashfree Payments 
AmazonPay 
WhatsApp Pay 
Zerodha 
Groww 
Park+ 
NPCI

What should I do next? I think my career has reached a dead end.

PayTM and it's anti-compete is making me suffer🚨

Non compete is not enforceable in India. You should talk to a lawyer friend and understand specifics of your contract. The article below is an interesting read 
  
 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enforceability-non-compete-clause-under-employment-contracts-ali?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via

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