Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed reinstatement of a guest lecturer and dispense maternity also

Jabalpur, Mar 9: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed a government college to reinstate a guest lecturer whose services it had terminated during her maternity leave. Setting aside the order of termination, Justice Sujoy Paul Friday asked the college to give maternity benefits also to the petitioner. Richa Tiwari, a guest faculty of computer science in the Government Naveen Mahavidyalay at Lidhoura in Tikamgarh district, had filed the petition challenging her termination order of October 22, 2108, her counsel said.

"The high court said the respondents (including the state government) shall reinstate the petitioner in service and treat the relevant period as maternity leave and grant maternity benefits to her," Tiwari's counsel Madhavi Chaturvedi said. The petitioner had applied for maternity leave on October 1, 2018 while in advance stage of pregnancy.

She had also attached medical documents in support. But the college authorities did not respond to it, she said. "However, her services were terminated on October 22 on the pretext that she remained absent from the college without informing the authorities, whereas the petitioner had already applied for maternity leave," Chaturvedi said.