When can Landlord return the deposit?

This is the situation with our apartment in India. We rented our 3 bedroom flat/ apartment on 11 months lease agreement which is expiring on 30nov 2024. We will be visiting our home for a summer vacation in December 24. As per the norms, we have already given a notice to our tenant ( 2 months in advance) to vacate the flat around lease expiry date. The thing is he wanted to stay for a longer period and this vacating notice is a bit of a shock to him. He is furious and asking us to return the deposit before he moves out in December. We just checked the agreement and there is no clause on when we can return the deposit. We have no intention to have his money but we need to check the flat condition before returning the deposit. My question is When do we return the deposit to the tenant after the lease expiry in India? Is it before he moves out or after he vacated the flat and we check if there’s any damage to our property? Please respond, the tenant is just harrassing us since last few days.