Delhi HC urges Centre to reevaluate rule denying maternity leave to its women employees with more than two children

Delhi High Court urges Centre to reconsider Rule 43 denying maternity leave to women with more than two children.

The Delhi High Court has suggested that the Centre reconsider Rule 43 of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, which denies 180 days of maternity leave to women government employees with more than two surviving children.

A Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Girish Kathpalia noted that though Rule 43 of CCS (Leave) Rules was enacted in tune with the two-child policy of the government, aimed at population control, it must pass muster of Article 14 of the Constitution.

“Of course, the two-child policy aimed at population control is a laudable policy. That being so, we certainly do not advocate to incentivise more than two children. But the steps to disincentivise more than three children must be addressed to the parents and not to the children,” the Bench remarked in its July 22 judgment.

The court made the observation while rejecting an appeal filed by the Delhi police challenging a decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) directing it to grant maternity leave to a woman constable who already had two children.

“In order to achieve success in population control, the government may take any appropriate innovative steps in order to dissuade the citizens from giving birth to more than two children. But once third child comes into existence even in womb, her rights cannot be trampled over,” the court said.

It also reminded that for population explosion, the government servants are not the only class to be held responsible.

The woman constable joined the Delhi police in 2006. From her first marriage, she had two children. The marriage ended in mutual consent divorce in 2015, with the father gaining custody of the children. She then remarried in 2016 and had a child in 2018, prompting her to request maternity leave.