Employee not returning the company laptop after resignation: what you can do

How it usually happens

It is rarely a dramatic theft. Someone works from home in Indore or Coimbatore, resigns, serves notice remotely and says they will courier the laptop “next week”. Or they leave on bad terms, the F&F is in dispute, and the laptop becomes their bargaining chip. In both cases the company finds out on the last day that nobody arranged the return.

Then the trouble starts. IT is asked for the serial number and finds two versions of the asset sheet. HR is asked whether the person ever signed for the laptop and finds an unsigned email. Without a signed record of what was given, when and in what condition, every next step is weaker.

What Indian law allows

This is general information from the sources linked below, not legal advice. Talk to your lawyer before a notice or a complaint.

• A written demand, then a legal notice, listing each item with its tag, serial number and value, and a date to return it.
• Companies Act 2013, section 452: wrongful withholding of company property by an officer or employee. In October 2025 the Delhi High Court held that a former managing director keeping a company laptop and other assets fell squarely within it, and that returning them only after proceedings began did not undo the offence.
• Criminal breach of trust, now section 316 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (earlier IPC section 406), is often cited in police complaints when property is kept after a clear demand.
• Deduction from final wages: the Code on Wages allows deductions for loss of goods expressly entrusted to the employee, only for the actual loss, after giving them a chance to explain, and within a 50% ceiling per wage period.

Why most companies are in a weak position

Every one of those routes needs proof: that this person received this laptop, that they acknowledged your asset policy, what it was worth, and that you asked for it back. Courts and labour officers look at documents, not at what the IT team remembers.

Holding the whole Full & Final hostage no longer works either. Since 21 November 2025 the Code on Wages requires wages due to a leaver to be paid within two working days, so “we will release your F&F when the laptop comes back” is a risky position. Any deduction has to be specific: the item, its value and the reason.

• No signed hand-over, or one without serial numbers
• No asset policy the employee acknowledged
• The return was never asked for before the last day
• Nobody can say what the laptop is worth today

How to stop it happening

The fix is mostly process, and it starts on the joining day, not the last day.

• Get a signed hand-over for every item: tag, serial number, condition, and the policy version the employee accepted.
• Start the return the day the resignation is accepted, with a return date a few days before the last working day.
• For remote staff, send a courier pickup early, and record the docket number.
• Keep laptops enrolled in Intune or another MDM, so you can lock a device that does not come back.
• Flag unreturned or damaged items, with their value, to whoever prepares the F&F, before the two-day deadline.
• Do not issue the No-Dues certificate until every item is returned, written off or waived by someone with the authority to do so.

The usual way, and with AssetVow

What AssetVow does not do here

• AssetVow does not send legal notices or file complaints; it gives your lawyer the signed records.
• AssetVow does not lock or wipe devices itself; that is done in Intune or your MDM.
• Nothing is deducted from wages automatically; HR decides the amount.

Sources

Read on 4 November 2026. Laws and rules change; check the current text or ask your lawyer before acting.

1. King Stubb & Kasiva: Delhi High Court on timely return of company property (Punita Khatter v. Explorers Travel & Tour, 27 Oct 2025)
2. LiveLaw: Two working days, the Code on Wages and the employee’s final settlement
3. Nyaaya: What can employers deduct from employees’ wages (Code on Wages, section 18)
4. Drishti Judiciary: Sections 316 and 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita