MADURAI: Upholding an anganwadi worker’s right to maternity protection, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently set aside the order passed by the State government terminating the woman from service for taking seven months leave during her pregnancy.
The woman was working as an anganwadi worker at Singampunari taluk in Sivaganga. After being childless for over 11 years, she conceived through in-vitro fertilisation and faced a strenuous pregnancy. Due to this, she was absent from work for over seven months between 2013 and 2014. Though she gave a written explanation in this regard, she was terminated from service in May 2014 based on a G.O. passed by the Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme department in 1995, according to which the maximum leave period is six months.
Hearing a petition filed by the woman in 2014 challenging the dismissal, Justice S Srimathy observed that the aforesaid G.O. is not in conformity with the statutory provisions stated in the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. “Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, is a Central Act that provides 12 weeks leave before and after child birth. It was later extended to 26 weeks through an amendment in 2017”, she added.
Pointing out that the petitioner was eligible for three months statutory leave under the said Act during the relevant time, the judge held the authorities should not have included the three months while calculating the petitioner’s leave period. “If the three-month period was deducted, the petitioner had taken leave for only four months and 11 days, and had not exceeded the six-month period stated in the G.O.,” the judge added. She set aside the termination order and directed the government to reinstate the woman forthwith.