Maternity Benefit Act - after availing the maternity benefit instead of rejoining one can resign?

Hi All, I have a query one of our employees has taken maternity benefit means 6 months of salary from April 18 to Sep 18 and till date she did not resume at work. Now all of a sudden she has sent a resignation mail. My question is after availing the maternity benefit instead of rejoining one can resign? Shall we ask her to pay back us as she didn't work in salaried months obviously nor after that.

Maternity benefit is a statutory right based on the employee's previous service only. Therefore, it can not be recovered just because the employee failed to rejoin after its expiry. At the most you can refuse to accept her resignation on the ground of non compliance of notice conditions and terminate her services on the ground of unauthorised absence after following the legal formalties.