The Delhi Court urges reconsideration of maternity leave restrictions for the women who have more than two children. According to the law, the woman could only take maternity leave for two childs but he will be deprived of maternity leave if she has a third child. However, a government lady constable has raised her concerns over this law.
A woman started working as a lady constable with the police on 03-07-2006. Before joining, she married on 07-04-1998 and had two children. The marriage ended in divorce on 16-12-2015 with her husband getting custody of the children. She remarried on 11-12-2016 and had a child on 08-06-2018. After this she applied for maternity leave from 08-06-2018.
The police forwarded her application to the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD) for their opinion. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) stated that under Rule 43 of the CCS (Leave) Rules, a female government worker can get 180 days of maternity leave if she has fewer than two surviving children. Based on this the police rejected her leave application.
As she was unhappy with the decision she filed an application with the Tribunal for the reconsideration of maternity leave restrictions. She asked to cancel the order dated 05-04-2019 and requested maternity leave. The Tribunal agreed with her and ordered the police to grant her leave. This led to the current petition being filed.
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The Examination Of The Matter
The high court decided to do reconsideration of maternity leave restrictions on whether the mother should get maternity leave restriction or not after having her third child. Therefore, the high court presented that the maternity leave was necessary not only for Women’s health but also for her child’s health.
The bench criticized the lack of childcare leave in Himachal Pradesh. They said that women’s participation in the workforce is a constitutional right not a privilege. Childcare leave helps achieve this goal by allowing women to stay in their jobs while caring for their children. Without it the mothers might have to quit their jobs during important times in their children’s lives and ask for the reconsideration of maternity leave restrictions.
The Supreme Court asked the Himachal Pradesh government to quickly set up a high-level committee led by the chief secretary. This committee should include secretaries from the social welfare and women and child welfare departments. Their job is to carefully review the issue of childcare leave for women workers.
The court told the committee to work with relevant Union ministries and submit a report by July 31. This report should suggest a good policy for including childcare leave in the state’s service rules. In the meantime the court asked the Himachal Pradesh government to consider giving Dharmani special leave to care for her son who has brittle bone disease until a final decision is made.
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