Resignation of a permanent employee - if our company is bound to give the employee salary in lieu of relieving him immediately

Hi All, One of our permanent employee resigned and offered one month notice. Instead, our company told the employee that he need not give one month notice and relieved him immediately. Please advise if our company is bound to give the employee salary in lieu of relieving him immediately or we can deny him salary since we did not asked him to give one month notice as we did not want his services any more. What would be best solution?

Dear friend,
If certain condition like notice period has been prescribed for unilateral termination of the contract of employment, it equally applies to both the employer and the employee concerned.
If , by exercising a particular option pertaining to notice as stipulated already, the employee submits his resignation, it amounts to an offer of exit in a specific fashion to the employer. Of course, the employer can accept it as it is or modify it depending on exigencies. But when he modifies it in the way as described in the post, it amounts to a counter offer that requires the consent or the acceptance of the employee.
In this scenario, the legal liability of complying with the notice covenant automatically gets shifted to the employer. Therefore, the employer has to pay one month's notice salary for relieving him forthwith.