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Synopsis

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has ruled that the services of an employee on maternity leave cannot be terminated during the leave period.

The court, presided over by Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi, held that once maternity leave is sanctioned, it cannot be curtailed to facilitate termination. The court directed the state to pay arrears of salary to the affected employee and ruled that the termination order would be effective only after the completion of the sanctioned leave.

“Once an employee was on maternity leave, the said period of maternity leave could not have been curtailed so as to terminate the service of an employee and the services of the employee could have been dispensed with upon her joining after availing the benefit of maternity leave,” observed the court.

The court delivered its verdict while hearing a batch of petitions. The petitioners, who were engaged as temporary employees, sought regularization of their services. It was argued that they had been continuously working in their respective positions without any interim protection from the court, demonstrating that their services were still required. It was contended that they should not be replaced by another set of temporary employees under the same terms and conditions, as such replacement would cause them undue hardship.

One of the petitioners, Balvir Kaur, specifically challenged her termination while she was on maternity leave. She argued that the termination was unjustified and violated established legal protections for maternity leave.

The respondent State, relied on a prior ruling (Bikramjit Singh and Others v. State of Punjab and Others), delivered by the High Court’s Coordinate Bench, in which a similar claim for regularization was rejected. The respondents contended that the petitioners could not claim an absolute right to continued employment. However, they did not provide a valid justification for curtailing Balvir Kaur’s maternity leave to terminate her employment.

The court directed that the petitioners, who were currently working, be allowed to continue in service until the work of their respective posts ceased, subject to satisfactory performance. It reaffirmed, “keeping in view the settled principle of law that the temporary employee cannot be replaced by another set of temporary employee, the petitioners will not be replaced by another set of temporary employee on the same terms and conditions on which the petitioners are working.”

Addressing the case of Balvir Kaur, the bench categorically held that maternity leave was already sanctioned by the competent authority, which was wrongly curtailed to terminate the services of petitioner. The court ruled: “No valid justification has come from the respondents so as to curtail the period of maternity leave in order to terminate the services of petitioner-Balvir Kaur, hence, the petitioner-Balvir Kaur will be entitled to the salary for the period she was granted maternity leave and the order of termination of her services will be effective from the date she completed the said period.”

Conclusively, the court directed the state to release Kaur’s pending salary within eight weeks, noting that she was entitled to receive her full salary for the leave period.

 

Cause Title: Ravisan and others v State of Punjab and others and other connected matters [CWP-9174-2018 (O&M) and others]