New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that "maternity leave is intended to encourage women to join and continue in the workplace" and "childbirth has to be construed during employment as a natural development in the life of every woman".
The bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna was hearing a woman's petition who is a government employee and was denied maternity leave for her biological child as she had already availed for child care leaves in her earlier marriage to take care of her husband's kids.
The court said that the intent of maternity leave would be defeated if child care leaves are used to disentitle her rights under the Central Civil Services Rule(CCS). The advocate submitted that the rules of maternity leaves for 2 children are to encourage smaller families but the court remained unconvinced and observed and said that this argument can not be applied to her as she got married into such a family.
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"It's a harsh reality that women would leave in the absence of such facilitative measures," observed the court. The court directed to grant the benefits pending to the woman within 2 months.
