JAMMU, Aug. 27 -- The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Jammu has held that maternity leave availed by women employees cannot be treated as a break in service for the purpose of regularization, ruling that J&K Bank's orders deferring their confirmation were unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Justice M.A. Chowdhary, while disposing of two connected writ petitions, quashed the Bank's orders that had postponed the regularization of four women Banking Associates - Basu Magotra, Isha Sudan, Bintul Hudda and Tanu Gupta - on account of their availing maternity leave during their contractual period.
The petitioners, represented by Advocates Amit Gupta and Advocate Rajiv Kumar Sharma, argued that their duly sanctioned maternity leave, ...