Karnataka High Court Allows Maternity Leave To Senior Resident Doctor Employed On Contract Basis

Dr Swetha was employed as a Senior Resident in the Department of Medicine, ESIC College & Hospital, Kalaburgi on a contract basis. After 125 days of service, she submitted a leave application in November 2018, seeking grant of Maternity Leave.

Relying on the office memorandum issued on January 1, 2018, she approached the court challenging denial of maternity leave by the Joint Director.

The court noted,

"A reading of Annexure-F (office memorandum) discloses that in respect of Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff, they are entitled to 26 weeks of Maternity Leave, subject to the condition that such person must have rendered at least 80 days of service in the past 12 months preceding the date of expected delivery, as envisaged in the Maternal Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017."

Further, Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy in his order said,

"In the present case, the application was submitted on 20.11.2018 seeking for Maternity Leave for 26 weeks which terminated on 19.05.2019 and the petitioner delivered on 24.12.2018. Therefore, the petitioner was entitled to the benefit of Maternity Leave even as per the Office Memorandum dated 11.01.2018 as by the time she had sought for Maternity Leave, she had put in 80 days of service."

Accordingly, the court ordered,

"This Writ Petition is allowed and the impugned order passed by respondent No.5 is quashed. The leave sought by the petitioner for the period 26.11.2018 to 19.05.2019 is granted and the same shall be considered as "on duty". The petitioner is also entitled to claim all bonuses that she is entitled to."

Case Title: Dr. Swetha v. Union of India

Case No: WP No 202702/2019

Date of Order: August 2, 2021.

Appearance: Advocate Ameet Kumar Deshpande for petitioner; Adv Sudhirsingh R Vijapur for R1, R2; Advocate Sanjeev Kumar C Patil for R5, R6

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