"This is very significant," Rathod's solicitor Sarmila Bose of the Work Rights Centre told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"It shows that redress is possible for the many people who have been wronged by the way the visa scheme has been operated."
Bose said the award was "a lifesaver" for Rathod, his wife and six-year-old daughter who had been left in a "desperate financial situation" by Clinica.
After the ruling, Rathod said he felt "massive relief". "This has been an incredibly stressful time for me, both emotionally and financially, as while Clinica denied me work and income, I was unable to provide for my family," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a statement.
Legal experts said it was extremely rare for judges to grant "interim relief" and the ruling was a strong indication Rathod would win his case at the Central London Employment Tribunal when it is eventually heard in full.
Rathod said he had paid an agent in India 22,000 pounds to secure a care job in Britain - although there is no suggestion Clinica knew this.
After arriving in May 2023, he received a contract to work as a healthcare assistant with an annual salary of 23,500 pounds.
When no work materialised, Rathod and other employees visited Clinica's west London offices several times.
Following one visit, he received an email accusing him of "gross insubordination".
After months without work, Rathod told a company representative he would take legal action. He was sacked the following day on Nov. 8, 2023.
"I told him the situation was killing me, I could not sleep at night," Rathod said in a witness statement.
In a previous written summary of the case, the judge said Clinica appeared to have "strung along" a significant number of others and its behaviour suggested "something awry" in the way it ran its business.
The tribunal heard that Clinica's licence to employ overseas workers had since been revoked. Its representative had argued the company could not be asked to pay Rathod since it no longer had a licence to sponsor overseas workers.
The Work Rights Centre, which is helping three other migrant workers with claims related to different companies, said more than 60 people had approached it with similar stories this year alone.
But Bose said this was the tip of the iceberg.
"Some companies employed dozens of people (from overseas) when they didn't really have jobs for them," she said. "The number of people affected overall is in the thousands."
Labour experts told an investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation this year that abuse was rife in the care sector, but most migrant workers did not complain because they feared losing their visa and being deported.