Is It Legal to Recover a Salary Hike if an Employee Leaves Within a Year?

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Salary Hike and Recovery Conditions

An employer has given a salary hike to all its employees uniformly based on salary benchmarking and similar industry practices for employee retention. Then, through a common office circular, a condition was put in place stating that if any employee leaves the organization within a period of one year from the date of the salary revision, the incremented amount will be recovered from the full and final settlement of the concerned employee.

Legality of Salary Recovery

Is it legal to recover the salary once paid to an employee by referencing the circular? In this case, no formal agreement was executed between the employee and employer, or in other words, the employee has not given any acknowledgment of the condition or circular. Please share your input.
umakanthan53
Whether the unconditional revision of existing salary is based on salary benchmarking or any other factor, it becomes a part and parcel of the contract of employment, either express or implied. In my opinion, therefore, the employer cannot subsequently introduce any conditions with retrospective effect.
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