A librarian at the took her employer to court for race discrimination after being told she couldn't take a whole term off. Havovi Anklesaria had worked at Trinity College for 30 years before requesting three-month-long leave at the start of the year to travel to .

When her request was refused, she sued the historic institution for direct and indirect race discrimination and victimisation. A judge after concluding that none of the allegations had been well-founded and that Ms Anklesaria's employer had responded "flexibly" to her holiday request. She had worked at the college since 1994 as an evening and weekend desk supervisor, a Cambridge tribunal heard, with casual contracts allowing her to visit her family in India several times a year, generally between December and April.

Ms Anklesaria was reportedly offered a permanent position at the institution in 2021 but turned it down because she wanted to take her three-month break at the beginning of the year, encompassing the entire academic term between January and March.

She alleged that the contract she had been offered was discriminatory because it hadn't allowed her to take the term-long break.

However, judge Rebecca Freshwater said Ms Anklesaria had been offered a "permanent and flexible contract" which she had personally deemed "unacceptable".

"She would have been able to take breaks from work and move away for travel purposes, just not during an entire term," Ms Freshwater said.

Her employer had "worked to find solutions that included flexibility", Ms Freshwater added.

She also found that Ms Anklesaria would have been able to take a three-month break at a different point in the year, and that the accusations of discrimination stemmed from her view that "she ought to have been offered a permanent contract that enabled her to take the same breaks from work that she had done under the casual contracts".

"We do not find that Ms Anklesaria was treated less favourably because of her nationality," the judge concluded.

"We are not satisfied that a hypothetical comparator would have been treated any differently."