Harekala Hajabba arrives in Mangaluru to grand welcome by locals at airport
Mangaluru: Padma Shri recipient Harekala Hajabba arrived at the Mangaluru International Airport on Tuesday morning. A massive crowd was reportedly seen pushing and pulling outside the airport in a bid to welcome the Padma Shri awardee.
‘Akshara Santa’ Harekala Hajabba received the fourth most prominent civilian Padma Shri award presented by the Central Government on Monday. He was seen accepting the award in his usual simple attire during the award ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Harekala Hajabba was recognized by the Central government and nominated for the Padma Shri award on January 25, 2020, for his contribution towards educating 100’s of poor children using the money that he earned selling oranges. The date for the award ceremony was also reportedly announced during the month of March of the same year. However, due to the onset of COVID-19, the ceremony was postponed to a later date.
After his arrival to the city he was warmly received and honoured at the District Commissioner’s office by the D.C Dr. Rajendra K.V, and other officials of the D.K. district administration.
Several officials were present during the occasion.
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Madras HC strikes down TN order limiting maternity leave for third child
Chennai: The Madras High Court has set aside a Tamil Nadu government order restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, holding the move to be contrary to established legal principles.
A division bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and N Senthil Kumar ruled that there was no justification to treat third pregnancies differently from the first two, observing that the physical and medical requirements of childbirth remain the same irrespective of the number of pregnancies, as reported by The News Minute.
According to a report published by Live Law, the court was hearing a petition filed by Shayee Nisha, a staff member of the district judiciary in Villupuram, whose request for maternity leave from February 2026 to February 2027 had been curtailed to three months by authorities citing the March 13, 2026 government order.
Quashing the decision of the Principal District Judge and related directions asking her to resume duty, the bench directed that she be granted maternity leave on par with that provided for earlier pregnancies, allowing up to 365 days.
The court noted that both the Supreme Court of India and earlier rulings of the High Court had consistently held that maternity benefits cannot be denied for a third child. Holding the restriction to be unsustainable, the court directed authorities to process maternity leave applications without discrimination based on the number of pregnancies.
It also pointed out that a similar issue had been addressed by a division bench earlier this year, which had disapproved denial of maternity leave in such cases and directed that its ruling be circulated among judicial officers. Despite this, the state issued the impugned order, the bench observed.
