Maternity leave no ground for termination of services: SC
Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: 29.10.2020
The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed a Delhi University college for removing an ad hoc woman assistant professor during her maternity leave and said “having a child is no reflection on a woman’s professional ability”.
Manisha Priyadarshini has been working as an ad hoc assistant professor in different colleges affiliated to Delhi University. Her contractual appointment was getting renewed every four months with a notional break of one day for the last more than six years. The last renewal of her contract was in November 2018 when she was working with Aurobindo College. In January 2019, she sought maternity leave for four months as she was having complications in her pregnancy. She gave premature birth to a daughter, but the college removed her from service in March.
A Delhi high court bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Asha Menon ordered her reinstatement and imposed a cost of ₹50,000 on the college, which appealed against it in the SC.
An SC bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee said, “Maternity leave cannot be a ground for termination of services. Having a child is not a reflection on a woman’s professional ability whether she is in the Army, Navy, judiciary, teaching or bureaucracy. We will not allow termination on this ground.”
The SC bench told the college that it would be a travesty of justice if after removing the woman from her post, the college resorted to another ad hoc appointment.
Full report on www.toi.in
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