The HC also asked the respondents (PIB authorities) to reply within two weeks why they should not be directed to pay compensation to the petitioner, PIB Assistant Librarian Nomita Akhter Mukti, for the harassment, humiliation, mental agony and gender discrimination that she was subjected to.

Directing the PIB authorities to allow Nomita to continue her work in the position of assistant librarian (acquisition and processing), the HC asked them to pay her salary with effect from March this year.

Nomita, who joined the PIB on July 7, 1999, received a dismissal order on March 5 this year for conducting a seminar on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Public Library on August 5 last year. PIB Director General (DG) Dr Rezowan Hossain Siddiqi also asked her not to turn up at office.

As she filed a writ against the dismissal order, the HC asked the PIB authorities to reinstate her to the post for three months (effective from March 12). The Supreme Court Appellate Division also upheld the HC order on April 8.

But Nomita told The Daily Star that when she went to join her duty on April 16, the DG and other officials did not let her join and asked her to produce a written order of the Supreme Court. However, she went to join her duty with necessary papers on May 29 and the DG's personal assistant refused to receive the joining letter and she had to dispatch it.

However, though the authorities allowed her to enter the PIB office, she was not given any work and asked to sit idle in another officer's room, Nomita complained.

When she applied on June 22 for her March salary, she was told that an audit objection had been lodged against her, as she did not have the required educational qualification for the job. The PIB authorities also asked her to return the Tk 1.35 lakh that she had received in salary and allowances.