HC: State can’t discriminate in granting maternity leave

Observing that the state cannot discriminate in granting maternity leave, the Bombay high court has allowed a member of a consumer panel to take maternity leave for six months.
“In our opinion, there can be no discrimination in the matter of granting the maternity leave benefit of 180 days to a member of the district forum who is appointed on a fixed tenure of five years only on the grounds that she is not a government servant,” said a division bench of Justices Shantanu Kemkar and Makarand Karnik in its May 4 order.
The court’s verdict came on a petition by Prerna Kalunkhe-Kulkarni, a member of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in Nashik, for a direction to grant her maternity paid leave for six months. After 18 weeks of pregnancy, on December 4, 2017, she wrote to the president of the state consumer disputes redressal commission to grant her maternity leave. Since she got no response, she moved the high court.
Source: Times of India