Sharing your CTC with HR

Most likely they won't drop your candidature. One way to tackle this problem is to give a rough range and tell them that you can share more during the final conversation.

Again, the problem is no offer letter would be generated without them knowing your current CTC. So if you think you can leverage this info during the final round then your performance in the interviews should be like top class.

It's legal in India to ask this info, no law against it.

Not at all. I shared my in-hand offer of 60LPA while thinking that HR may not have the right budget. But she came back with a 80LPA just because I shared my current offer.

So don’t shy away from negotiating with what you have in hand.

The way I tackled it the last time was to politely refuse to share my current salary. I did share a very rough range of what I was looking for. I prefaced it by saying something along the lines of "I'm not entirely sure what a fair compensation is for my skill level in the current market but I have heard some numbers between <x> and <y> from some colleagues who recently switched jobs. Can you share what salary range your company is offering for this role?". Often the recruiter would reveal at least some information on what their budget is which is good information to have. Many companies also ask your current ctc just for the sake of asking and if you refuse to share they won't push you.

If they are pushy about the current ctc I would say that "we can talk about that later in the cycle. I'm not comfortable sharing that information so early in the process."

In the end what matters the most is to have multiple competing offers and doing well in the interviews. Companies will match and beat competing numbers when you do well in their interview.

It’s good in cases as they will not proceed if that goes beyond their budget.