Delhi High Court imposes ₹50k fine on AAP government for contesting maternity benefits to contractual employee

The Delhi High Court recently imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on Delhi government for challenging the order granting maternity benefits to a woman employed as stenographer on contractual basis with the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission [Govt of NCT of Delhi through State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and Ors v Rehmat Fatima]. .A division bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Shalinder Kaur criticised the government and said its appeal was misconceived as the single-judge’s order granted benefits to a young woman who had served the consumer forum with utmost dedication for over five years..The bench also referred to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s promised scheme of Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojna which says that ₹1,000 per month will be given to all adult women in the national capital.The Court said that it is surprised that the government which is giving great publicity to the scheme chose to contest an order giving benefit to a woman. “In fact, we are surprised that the Govt. of NCT of Delhi, which is giving great publicity to the steps being taken to promote the interest of women in Delhi and has under its recently announced scheme i.e., Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojna promised to pay all adult women in the city except those who are tax-payers/government employees or are drawing pension, a monthly sum of ₹1,000/- in the future has chosen to file such a misconceived appeal to assail an order which grants the benefits under the Act to a young woman, who has with utmost dedication served in the Delhi State Consumer Forum over 5 years,” the Court said.It, therefore, dismissed the appeal and ordered the government to pay ₹50,000 costs to the woman.“For the aforesaid reasons, we find absolutely no reason to interfere with the impugned order insofar as it directs the appellants to pay to the respondent salary and other monetary benefits for a period of 26 weeks for which period she had sought maternity benefits. The appeal being misconceived is along with all pending applications dismissed with costs of Rs.50,000. Costs be paid to the respondent within four weeks from today.".The division bench was dealing with an appeal filed by the Delhi government against an order of the single-judge passed on October 6, 2023 granting maternity and medical benefits for a period of 26 weeks to a woman named Rehmat Fatima.The single-judge had refused Fatima's plea for re-engagement on the post of stenographer on contractual basis. It was the government’s case that Fatima’s contractual engagement was expiring on March 31, 2018 and, therefore, the government could not be saddled with the liability to pay wages for the entire period of the maternity leave availed by her which extended till August 31, 2018.The government argued that the it could, at the best, pay the wages till March 31, 2018 and not for any period..The division bench considered the case and concluded that as per Section 5 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 the benefits payable to Fatima would not come to an end on expiry of the term of her contractual engagement.“We, therefore, find no merit in the appellant’s plea that the respondent was not entitled to receive any benefits under the Act for the period beyond 31.03.2018, the date when the term of her contractual engagement was expiring,” the Bench held..Additional Standing Counsel Yeeshu Jain with advocates Jyoti Tyagi, Manisha and Hitanshu Mishra appeared for the Delhi government.Rehmat Fatima was represented through advocates Syed Hasan Isfahani and Syed Mohd Hassan..[Read Judgement]