I guess you understands the best situation i am now.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Good answer, but a few issues. 1) It assumes that OP has explained that they have a minimum 60 day notice. 2) Assumes malice, when as you said, it could (and likely is) just stupidity. 3) Not every company will refuse "because they can." I've had a position where when I gave my notice, they said "okay, come back on that day to fill out some paperwork. In the meantime, we're canceling your shifts until then" (That wasn't requested though...)

(but Europe would be the same in that respect), if you have 60 days notice period, the company can force you to work for 60 days for them and not work for any other company for those 60 days. A company cannot force you to do that in Europe. You can drop out, which of course means consequences for you (notably in unemployment rights). This is a drastic choice which must be weighted but it is not like you are chained or can be sued for that (see for instance service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F31209 for the French regulations in that matter)

"Trying to negotiate with your old company would be a massive mistake" - Disagree. I did it, it ended OK. If you can tidy up existing tasks in X days and company is not going to assign you a new ones anyway, the benefit for the company is that they can stop paying you after said X days, and not waste money on you thorough notice period.

@Mołot Is your experience with an employer in India? I have only extremely sparse knowledge, but I think the employee needs some type of letter from the current employer to "release" them, otherwise they become really difficult to employ.

@Mołot Had you accepted a written offer from the new employer before negotiating a reduced notice period with your current one?

@AnthonyGrist without unnecessary details - nope, but I started to work under self-employment / sort term contract laws anyway and indeed I was sure I'll have an income. Still, my comment was only on the "nothing to gain for the employer". I'm not discussing general strategy for employee here.

@VishwaRatna its "I guess you understand* the best situation i am now." Are you sure you got selected in product based company in India? I mean Indian companies are below average no matter product based.

@WoJ Are you sure you cannot be sued? I am pretty sure you can in Germany and Switzerland, and absolutely certain you can in England&Wales. In practise this doesn't often happen - but is an option for the old employer. (It would be a straightforward case of breach of contract in E&W.)

@MartinBonner: I just checked for France beyond the legal link I provided in my comment. The company can "sue" you at a special court (Conseil des Prud'hommes) and there are two possible fines you can get: 1) if you leave during your notice period, you may be asked to pay the salary you would have received during the remaining time of the notice 2) you can also be given a fine if the company shows that you leaving had a tremendous impact on the company.

@MartinBonner: (cont'd) From the documents I read this is an rare case (because companies do not want to go to that court which is leaning towards the employee, and then the evidence they have to provide is very strong). But to answer your point: yes, it is indeed possible to have an employee get a fine.

@WoJ That is what I thought. Note that the payment is not a "fine" (which is a punishment for a crime), but "damages" (to put the employer back in an equivalent position to that it would have been in, if you had not broken your contract).

@MartinBonner: it seems to be more complicated than that (according to existing cases & a friend who is a employment lawyer I asked in the meantime): the case 1) in my comment is easier to achieve for the employer but the amount will be only the salary which would have been payed to the employee independently of actual costs/losses. So this is why I called that a fine for the employee. The employer would need to go for the 2) case, where they need to have a very strong case, in which case the employee would need to pay damages (in line with the actual losses of the employer).

I'm not from India, so excuse my ignorance, but how can the company can force you to work for 60 days for them and not work for any other company? What happens if you just quit?

@Rich from various other questions I've seen over the year, if you just quit or stop showing up an Indian ex-exployer won't give you paperwork needed to document your employment history; and not having that paperwork will cause serious problems with any future attempts to get formal employment (to include starting the job you quit the old one for). workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/relieving-lette‌​r

Europe is not a country, in many countries in europe they can't force you to work those days. In the Netherlands you can actually quit the same day if you want to, but you'll lose certain privileges like possible free government money, and likely not a good reference ;-).

you can forget about promotions, raises — why would that be? Surely if someone wants to leave, offering them a promotion or a raise can be a way of trying to get them to stay? Essentially the classic "walk away" negotiation tactic?

I agree with your analysis but one point, companies sometimes let people go early if this is not critical, because they know the employee won’t be very motivated in those days anyway and they might be just nice. Beside sometimes they might want you to work through your rest-holiday and might pay that out unless they let you leave early. Lots of reasons why they might say yes and you can ask - but only if your new job is signed.

It's worth noting that in a service based company, in India, it is a common practice to make it difficult for employees to leave. They would initially indicate that they would require you for full 60 days, and that means many people have to let go of decent opportunities. If you still go ahead with it, then on 30th day, when they no longer need you, they will notify you that they will release you a week later.

@Nisarg pretty sure if employer fires an employee on the notice period without pay of full notice period can open them up for wrongful termination suit. But yeah I've heard of that, it's not a nice move, but some people are born this way.