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HI’m a 29-year-old woman with a 7-month-old baby. I lost my job after announcing my pregnancy, and now I’m being dragged to court for a false defamation case that feels impossible to fight.
I was a good employee, even got an appraisal for my performance within 6 monhts of my joining. But the moment my company found out I was pregnant, everything changed. They pressured me to resign, denied my maternity benefits, and when I refused, they started finding faults in my work. They eventually fired me, falsely claiming performance issues.
I fought back and filed complaints with government bodies. The authorities took my side and issued notices to the company. They had to pay my maternity benefits which is 6-months salary. But instead of accepting their wrongdoing, they retaliated. They filed a completely fake defamation case against me in the court. Now, court has started trial against me. I’m being forced to pay thousands of rupees to get my bail, have to hire a lawyer, and spend my savings just to defend myself for a false case.
I have no job, no steady income, and yet I am being treated like a criminal. The company has fabricated evidence, brought in their own employees as witnesses, and the legal system seems to be working in their favor.
I can’t even file another complaint anywhere because they are using my past complaints as an excuse to label me as someone who “regularly files complaints.” I also can’t approach an NGO because I don’t want to ruin my career by making this public.
I’m about to spend all my savings just to fight this case, and honestly, I have no hope left in the system. I never thought that standing up for my rights could backfire this badly.
How do you even fight a system that’s designed to exhaust you? Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do?
Have posted about this before: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceIndia/comments/1j3zyfv/employer_filed_false_case_against_me_for_standing/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceIndia/comments/1j3zyfv/employer_filed_false_case_against_me_for_standing/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
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CWas this kid U got or pregnancy U got by any of the Directors/partners or KMP of a company?
They can’t fire just for being pregnant there must be some reason -
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DHow can they use company employees as witness? Isn’t that a conflict of interest? Cause usually, if you want to sued the company, they ask you to resign, stating a conflict of interest. So how can a current employee stand as witness in favour of justice if their job depends on it?
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HYes, your point is fair and it is a pretty straightforward case of retaliation and filed with the intention of harassment. Proving defamation is not an easy thing as there is no documentary evidence available. They all are weak evidence and clearly testifying under pressure.
Still, the Hon’ble judge has initiated a trial against me on the basis of these witnesses. Now I am on bail without any crime. No relief for me being a mother of a newborn. This is the story so far.
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RThis situation is deeply troubling, and unfortunately not uncommon in India, where pregnant employees or women asserting their workplace rights sometimes face retaliation. Here’s a breakdown from an Indian legal and practical perspective:
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1. Your Friend’s Rights Were Violated
Based on what you’ve shared, the employer appears to have violated multiple Indian laws:
Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
Denial of maternity leave or salary is a clear violation.
Retaliation after announcing pregnancy is a serious red flag.
Terminating an employee during or shortly after maternity leave can be considered illegal unless for gross misconduct (which has to be proven).
Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
Workplace harassment or pressuring to resign during pregnancy can be challenged under this act if the harassment had a gendered component.
Indian Labour Laws (Shops & Establishments Act, ID Act etc.)
Unlawful termination and coercive tactics to force resignation can be challenged before Labour Commissioner or Industrial Tribunal, especially if she wasn’t in a managerial position.
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2. Regarding the False Defamation Case – BNS Section 356
Under BNS 356 (Defamation):
It’s a non-cognizable offence – meaning police can’t arrest without a magistrate’s order.
If police called her, they might have been asked to do a preliminary investigation.
If she hasn’t received summons, she is not yet formally accused, but must prepare legal defense.
The company’s attempt to use fabricated witnesses (their own employees) is common in such cases, but testimonies alone without corroboration are weak in court – especially if malice or motive to frame is proven.
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3. Recommended Actions for Her
a. Hire a Good Lawyer Immediately
Preferably someone with labour + criminal defense experience.
She should file a counter affidavit denying the defamation charges and highlighting her complaints pending before labour/women/human rights commissions.
b. Collect and Preserve Evidence
Keep emails, chats, performance appraisals, maternity leave applications, any salary slips showing deductions, and any earlier legal notices filed.
Record all instances of communication with the employer, even if verbal (write dated notes).
c. File for Quashing of FIR (if FIR is filed)
Under Section 482 of CrPC, High Court can quash false criminal cases, especially if it’s clearly retaliation.
d. Approach NCW (National Commission for Women) or SCW (State Commission)
They can intervene, call hearings, and even write to police or courts to protect her rights.
Mention retaliation for pregnancy and labour complaints in the petition.
e. Media / NGO Involvement – Carefully Consider
If she fears career backlash, use anonymous or legal aid NGOs (e.g. Majlis, Saheli, HRLN).
Some NGOs provide free or subsidized legal help.
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4. Mental Health & Financial Strain
The stress and financial toll are real. Encourage her to:
Lean on family/friends for support.
Consider legal crowdfunding platforms like Ketto or Milaap if financial help is needed.
Document everything for potential damages claim later.
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5. Hope in Precedents
There are court judgments in India where women won compensation, reinstatement, or damages for:
Unlawful termination due to pregnancy.
Retaliation for raising workplace complaints.
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Summary
She’s not alone. This is workplace retaliation, and her legal position is stronger if documented well. The defamation case can be fought, and quashed or dismissed if she plays it smart and with proper legal help.
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HI also thought all these laws are my side when I asked ChatGPT.
In reality, I saw a different side of court. I am the one who has to pay for the bail. I have to pay lawyers fees. I have to travel to court on every hearing with my child who is still on breastfeed. Court works at their pace, they are not as fast as AI.
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SSomeone higher up suggested filing a written petition in HC to quash the case. That’s your least expensive option. It’s also the most correct. You can commission about your company, but if you post their name on social media, especially somewhere like LinkedIn, you’ll also suffer. Generally, court is considered the “correct” way to handle things. And there’s already a defenation cases against you, so if someone is checking, they can see that.
Did you get another job already? Either your career is fully gone already or it won’t be affected by going to HC or an NGO. Just ask not to be named. (Even if you are, there’s a bunch of people with that name. But NGOs don’t do that for fun.)
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Rkeep fighting ask for higher compensation including court expenses, for causing you mental trauma, trying to sabotage your career, etc
your day of announcing your pregnancy and the day they changed their action stands strong. try to get one more person from office on ur side.
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OYou never know if its half way or just beginning.. whoever gone through this hustle will never advise others to file more cases.. only lawyers(for sake of money) or naive ppl suggest to file more cases .. even after battling 10 years ppl resolve it by talking outside court.. net net negative result only
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SFrankly I would recuperate from the birth and find a new job. you didn’t think retaliation would “backfire” – Have you been living under a rock?
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PYou said they paid you in your previous post.
You said they deducted the phone amount and paid you reluctantly for the maternity period.
Also if they did fire you after they paid you for your maternity, you should’ve accepted your fate and moved on to a new company.
You’re already fired and cases have been filed against you for defamation but you still aren’t naming the company, seems like this is for clout considering the inconsistencies in your story.
And FYI the system is very fair and lenient for women, unlike for men so stop crying about how the system is designed to fail you, you should’ve enjoyed your 6 months free salary instead of trying to act smart and extort more money from the company.
Also where is your husband in this equation?
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HYes, I said they paid me after I filed complaint in labour commission office.
Yes, they deducted 10K for phone and phone is still in my possession.
They fired me after my maternity period was over. I got terminantion letter on email and I never reacted after that. I accepted my fate already started searching for a new job.
I am an accused in defamation case and facing trial. I feel if I name them now, it will only make their case stronger. They don’t have any documentry proof of defamation right now. They are just making stories. If I try to name and shame them, it will give weightage to their argument. That’s what I am suggested.
I have presented every fact with honesty and would like to clear every doubt or inconsistencies you are seeing here. This is important for me as the opponent lawyer will also try to find out such loopholes. I’d appreciate if you could point out where do you see an inconsistency in my case or version.
I never demmanded 6 months salary. In fact, company HR has already told me during my joining that they don’t pay during maternity leaves but they give unpaid leaves for 6 months. I agreed to that and signed on agreement. It was the labour commission office who directed them to pay 6 months salary. I didn’t file any case on them for more money. All the complaints were filed before they started paying me.
My husband is supporting me and doing his best he could. But he is the only earning member of family right now and he is already keeping is job at stake.
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HYes, I said they paid me after I filed complaint in labour commission office.
Yes, they deducted 10K for phone and phone is still in my possession.
They fired me after my maternity period was over. I got terminantion letter on email and I never reacted after that. I accepted my fate already started searching for a new job.
I am an accused in defamation case and facing trial. I feel if I name them now, it will only make their case stronger. They don’t have any documentry proof of defamation right now. They are just making stories. If I try to name and shame them, it will give weightage to their argument. That’s what I am suggested.
I have presented every fact with honesty and would like to clear every doubt or inconsistencies you are seeing here. This is important for me as the opponent lawyer will also try to find out such loopholes. I’d appreciate if you could point out where do you see an inconsistency in my case or version.
I never demmanded 6 months salary. In fact, company HR has already told me during my joining that they don’t pay during maternity leaves but they give unpaid leaves for 6 months. I agreed to that and signed on agreement. It was the labour commission office who directed them to pay 6 months salary. I didn’t file any case on them for more money. All the complaints were filed before they started paying me.
My husband is supporting me and doing his best he could. But he is the only earning member of family right now and he is already keeping is job at stake.
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OLooks like alot to handle.. also why would you file a case against a company ? Knowing you have a baby with you.. choose your battle carefully.. looking at your situation.. keep your ego aside and apologise to them…. fastest way to resolve these court cases is outside court.. you wont get anything out of this.. they wanted to prove a point and they succeeded.. accept this and think about future of your kid.
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HHey, I have not filed any case against company. They filed a fake case against me in the court.
I have just complained to authority when they did not pay my salary when I was 8 month pregnant. I don’t want to fight and need nothing from them.
Case is filed by them and I am facing defamation charges. I am already concerned about my child.
They are not interested to resolve the case outside court becauase they want to drag me to the court and harrass me.
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Sop started it by filling against the company and getting them to pay money.. now when company is fighting it out their way, they are feeling the pain.
One should understand that getting appraisal in 6 months doesn’t show that the performance remained good or at same level after that.. There might be genuine natural reasons where the productivity and performance might have gone down afterwards and may be due to genuine medical reasons like pregnancy. We should put our best argument but at the end of day in a private company it’s how our performance is perceived is the truth. Else everyone thinks they are doing a 5/5 rating work.
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HSir, I filed complaints for three reasons:
1. To get the salary for the month which I have worked. They were not paying it.
2. I was harrased mentally by the seniors for my performance unnecessarily. I have been working there for an year but I never saw such harrassment of any employee. I was not the lowest performer in my team, in fact my performance was above average always.
3. I was forced to put my resign. That was in a harsh tone. Just 1 month before I declared my pregnency, I was their favourite employee.
Please suggest if you see anything illegal or unethical if I exercised my right to complaint against the above things.
Also, I am feeling pain because they filed a completely false case and not fighting with the truth. I am feeling pain because I have to take my lactating baby girl to court for hearings. There is no place to feed my kid there but I use canteens or washrooms to breastfeed my child.
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SPrivate jobs are not secure. People are let off in a blink of a moment. Everyone knows that and have faced this in their career whether thet like it or not. Private company jobs are like that only. Some are fair some are less fair. One has to understand this and move to better company or work at a government organisation if not able to cope. Not a sensible decision to play the woman card in such scenarios. When women expect companies to pay sayme as their counterpart men then companies expect the same level of productivity and responsibilities from them.
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HTotally agree with your point. Morally, I am not in favour of free facilities for women.
But, here I didn’t demand anything. Honestly, before the performance review started, I was thinking to talk to my seniors and ask them to give me unpaid leaves or work from home untill I come back from maternity leaves. My understanding was pretty clear that company provides unpaid leaves only.
I was ready to work from home without salary as I didn’t want to lose the reputations with my clients. I am in sales job and it is important to retain connections with clients. All I wanted to get my job back when I return.
Before I could discuss it with them, they started forcing me to resign.
I was the senior member of the team and had better performance than my male counterparts. Obviously ups and downs were there.
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SMake an Instagram reel explaining your situation and include all the documents and proof you have. Social media support can go a long way. You’ll likely find a good pro bono lawyer willing to help. Don’t worry in most such cases, courts tend to side with employees, especially when there’s strong documentation. Your complaints to government bodies are solid evidence. These often push companies to settle quietly. And remember, media pressure is a powerful tool use it smartly.”
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ANestle employee just killed himself in february outside of court by setting himself on fire after 9 years of fighting against wrongful dismissal and winning twice even but then the corporate decided to drain his savings out and the system has been rigged against him. So, beware, you need at least a group of your ex coworkers on your side, or NGOs, otherwise you cannot fight the system alone
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PFrom the company perspective, if you work for 6 months and then announce that you’re pregnant and expect to be paid for 6 months for sitting at home, is it really viable for a company?
You must be at a high salary, when we talk about home workers, will you pay them 3000 rupees per month for being sick?
You should have offered to work contractually or a part time basis.
You filed a case to win 6 months free salary for 6 months of work, which is highly unethical on your part. Now they’re retaliating to ensure that you are not able to keep that money, rather you’re drained financially, emotionally and mentally.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. You should approach them and agree to not take or refund the maternity benefits which morally do not belong to you and settle the case and move on with your life. If you’re fighting for your ego, then they already have a legal team and a law firm on their payroll to keep you engaged legally for your entire life.
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AIt’s by law that the company has to pay maternity leave. You cannot expect human beings to plan their family around the needs of the company. The company’s needs are never ending.
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PSo you join a company while you’re pregnant and after 6 months you announce you are pregnant and expect a 6 months paid maternity leave? You plan your family, you leave the company. The company doesn’t need you. You go pick fights, you should expect retribution.
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AMaternity leave laws aren’t a suggestion companies can RSVP ‘no’ to—they’re the law, not a LinkedIn poll.
You’ve got it twisted; the original poster wasn’t smuggling a baby bump in their resume, they clocked 6 solid months before the big reveal.
Expecting them to sync their ovaries with the company calendar is peak corporate delusion—babies don’t wait for Q4. Sure, the company’s miffed, but retaliating over a legal right is like keying your own car to spite the road.
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PI’m not giving legal advise here. I am telling the OP to make amends out of court and live her life. I do not want to discuss biology here, but you probably do not know that no one announces they’re pregnant on missing their first periodicals. It’s always announced after the first trimester because before that it is unstable. So bump smuggling could have been an issue.
I’m being practical when I say that it will be foolish to expect a company to pay 6 months paid maternity leave for 6 months of work. It’s not like she was working there for 5 to 10 years. She could have worked around by asking for a work from home position or a part time position. But she chose to legally fight, which effectively means that she had planned to take the company to the cleaners should they not agree to give her a free ride and now she’s facing retribution.
The joining letter usually has a clause about pregnancy but it’s not maintainable by law, so she took them to court and got the money. It would be foolish on her part that there would be no retribution when they have been wronged.
I’m not talking about the law, I’m talking about real life. What the OP did was through and through morally wrong and while she is suffering the consequences, he innocent child is suffering for no fault of his.
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ALet’s get the biology straight first—no one’s proclaiming pregnancy the second the test turns pink; it’s a trimester-two drop, so the “bump smuggling” hunch is about as grounded as a kite in a storm. She put in 6 months of solid work—hardly a fly-by-night stint—before her pregnancy came up. Sure, 6 months of paid maternity leave after that might make a company balk, and maybe a work-from-home pivot or part-time gig could’ve smoothed things over.
But let’s not kid ourselves: this stopped being about fairness the moment they hit her with delayed paychecks, harassment, and a maternity leave ghosting. She didn’t “game” the system—she dragged them to labor court because they left her no choice. Their comeback? Docking her for a phone they wouldn’t pick up, firing her with a flimsy excuse, and now a criminal defamation suit claiming she called their office a drug den and brothel—absurd enough to make a soap opera blush.
This isn’t retribution for some moral slight; it’s a corporate tantrum with lawyers on speed dial. She’s juggling a 6-month-old while they turn her life into a legal nightmare, and you’re worried about her ethics?
Companies don’t get to play victim when they’ve weaponized their playbook.
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HFirst thing first, I worked there for an year not six months. I was not pregnant when I joined the job. I told them about my family planning when I joined and they promised me maternity leaves and work from home when required. I left a stable job to join this company because my prevoius employe does not have a WFH policy.
Pegnancy can’t be compared to being sick. I am not the one who made maternity benefits act. So comapny should challenge the goverment for this unethical law. The law says: If a women work for more than 80 days in a company then she is eligible for maternity benefits which is 26 weeks paid leave.
I was not aware about this law and never demanded salary from them for the period when I was on leave. I just complained when they hold my salary for the month which I have worked. The labour commission directed them to pay my maternity benefits when they got to know all the facts.
I was mentally tortured and pressurized to resgin when I was 8 months pregnant. I would have resigned but they tried acting so smart and put me in a very bad light in front of everyone in the office. I never filed any complaint when my dues were paid.
Now company has to filed a false defamation case against me with false evidences and made up witnesses.
Where do you see two wrongs here?
I was and I am always ready to apologise but there is no one to hear or accept my apologies.
Who has the ego here?
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PSis, you have my complete sympathy. Lack of knowledge of how the law works often creates this issue.
Firstly the law works differently, the labour commission will never provide you more relief than you ask for. If you do not specifically ask for maternity leave benefits in your application and prayer, they will not provide you the relief for the same.
Anyways, my suggestion to you is that you should contact your former reporting manager or HR and say that you would like to make a compromise with the company.
Talk to them humbly and tell them that you would like to compromise and move on and be willing to make a refund if needed. I am sure that they will have a more humane approach and soften their stance once they see you’re willing to make amends.
My genuine suggestion to you is that wasting time in court where you’re an accused in a criminal case takes all the juice out of your life. Add to that an infant child who deserves all the love and attention and care of a loving mother. You will forever be combative and that will affect your relationship with your child who will grow up to resent you. All this is not worth gaining a few lakhs of rupees which is already drained in fighting a futile legal battle leading you nowhere….
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HOfcourse I asked for maternity leave but not asked a salary for it which was provided by law.
There is no point reaching out to HR or Manager as they all the puppet of MD.
I just need to make a contact with MD which is not easy given at this situation but I am still trying. My pride is at stake here, I have not done a single wrong or illegal thing from my side.
I appreciate your suggestion of compromise and following it but do not agree to rerutn the money. They are liable for my mental distress and harrassment they have caused.
If I go for a fight, they will eventually have to pay more but I don’t want it.
Well, thanks for your constructive feedback and advise. Honestly, I have posted it here to get such responses because right now I am in fight with my pride and conscience.
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VSince the earlier judgement was in ur favour..the wrong termination one..most likely if u get a decent lawyer..then you’ll win this one too…n in the process make the company pay more money to u.
Higer courts do not squash lower court decision unless it’s a sensitive issue of national interest.
Since the court awarded u money n the company didnt pay, they’ll be asked to pay an additional fine.. have the lawyer fight it n get a % of ur winnings..
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