Signing Of An Appointment Letter?

Dear All,
I would like to have your view on my following query:
If a prospective employee sign's the appointment letter of the Organization and denys the offer, does the company has any hold on the Individual?
Per my understanding , Sigining an employment letter/appointment letter makes the individual fall into company norms and he/she becomes an employee from the effective date of joining as mentioned in the document.
Is my perception right? if yes then what measures company can take on such individuals.
regards,
Veena

you are right. An appointment letter is confirmation of employment and that the individual is an employee of the company. He / she has to follow the rules and regulations as set by the company and the terms and conditions mentioned in the letter are applicable to him / her.
A candidate after signing the appointment letter cannot refuse the offer letter. Offer letter can be defined as an offer of employment made to a prospective candidate by the company. If the candidate has to refuse the offer letter, he / she should do so before joining the company.
Hope it hel[s

But what if the candidate is made to sign the appointment later with the joining date after 01 month.
Does he still have to follow the rules? In this case the candidate has not joined but the offer was given and was asked to sign as acknowledgement.
Regds,
Krishna

Appoinment letter should be given on the date of joining and not before that. He will become an employee as soon as he/she signs the appointment letter. But if he is on probation period and if its mentioned that in probation period either he or the company can terminate the employer-employee relationship without giving prior notice then in that case the new employee can leave the office even after spending one day in the company by merely giving his/her resignation.In that case you will not have any hold on that individual. Hope i am clear.
Regards
Abhishek

As rightly pointed out by Abhishek, appointment letter cannot and SHOULD NOT be issued before the candidate joins the company.
If the candidate has not joined the company, then he has every right to decline the offer.
Hope it helps.