Job joining getting deferred again and again by the company, ater accepting the initial offer letter
I had an offer letter from my company stating that I was to join from 16th June'23. I accepted that over mail and sent them the signed copy of the offer letter. 5 days before the date of joining, they suddenly say that the joining has been deferred to 16th Oct'23 now. This is after they had booked a hotel stay for us, our flights and we had submitted all the onboarding documents and formalities on their portal.
Now yesterday, i.e. on 30th August, they again say that your joining has been deferred, and this time by 6 months. So, the new date of joining is now April'24.
They say the reason for this is the economic slowdown.
Also, we were 18 Management trainees, out of which 7 were called by them to join in July'23. They said the basis of selecting them was the language proficiency of the location they were being sent to, interview performance, CV, etc!
After the initial deferment by them, the HR reassured us saying that you guys can chill and relax and go on trips and take online course,etc in the meanwhile. I have been now sitting at home with no income (that I would be entitled to had I joined on 16th June'23). I got this job from my campus placements at an IIM. After getting selected for this, I was out of the placement season and could no longer sit for upcoming companies and hence missed out on all the further job opportunities.
Yesterday when the HR called, she said we will honour our commitment, BUT IF YOU FIND SOMETHING THAT IS BETTER THAN THIS, THEN YOU CAN JOIN!
On asking her if we could join some other company till then and when April comes we will join you back, she said this cant be done, because you guys are campus recruits, and campus recruits cant join after work ex from some company because then you are not campus recruits.
This is just really frustrating. I had to support my family, various other joinees with me (who's offer have also been deferred) had education loans to pay off and not to forget the mental toll this is taking on us!
Could you please guide us if we can proceed against them in court and sue them?
Thanking you
Best Regards