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The Supreme Court ruled that maternity leave is necessary for maternity benefits and women’s reproductive rights. This retained a petition by a Tamil Nadu teacher, refused to leave for his third child, expanding maternity benefits to support his rights.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that maternity leave is an integral part of maternity benefit and is an important part of women’s reproductive rights. A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuan said that no institution can deprive a woman from the right to maternity leave.
The apex court, while hearing a petition filed by a Tamil Nadu woman, a government teacher, decided, who was denied maternity leave after her child’s birth from her second marriage.
According to the woman, she was denied a holiday on the basis that she had two children before her first marriage.
A rule of Tamil Nadu is that maternity benefit will only be extended for the first two children.
However, the woman said that she did not take advantage of any maternity leave or profit for her first two children as she was not working at that time. She said that she started working only after her second marriage and now she wanted to take advantage of the benefit for her third child.
Representing the petitioner, Advocate KV Muthukumar said that the decision to give the state’s maternity leave did not violate his fundamental rights as he had not received the provisions of maternity benefit of Tamil Nadu earlier.
Siding with the petitioner, the Supreme Court expanded the scope of maternity benefit, stating that maternity leave will now be recognized as part of basic reproduction rights.
Under the maternity leave policy, any woman who was payable was capable of taking maternity leave paid up to 12 weeks after distributing the child. In 2017, significant amendments were made to the Maternal Benefits Act on the orders of the Supreme Court, the maternity leave for all women employees increased to 26 weeks.
Additionally, women who have adopted a child are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave.
