Kolkata: An employer cannot deny a woman employee her right to childbirth and avail herself of maternity leave, Calcutta High Court observed on Monday, clarifying that it did not matter whether the employee was regular or contractual, and even whether her contract had any provision for such leave.
The single-judge bench of Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury has directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to compensate an executive intern, whose maternity benefit claim it had denied previously, on the ground that her three-year contract did not have any such provision.
The judge struck down RBI’s argument that only regular employees could avail themselves of maternity leave, saying that violated a person’s fundamental right to equality, as ensured by Article 14 of the Constitution. Not allowing someone maternity leave was “discriminatory”, the judge said, one that “seeks to create a class within a class, which is not permissible.” If this were to be allowed, the judge said, it would be tantamount to “compel an employee to work during her advanced pregnancy” even though that may endanger both her and her foetus.
The judge was deciding on case that’s more than a decade old. In 2013, Neeta Kumari had moved the HC against the Centre and RBI, saying she had joined RBI as an executive intern on a three-year contract in August 2011. When she got pregnant, she applied for 180 days’ maternity leave in Nov 2012. In her application, she had asked for leave from Dec 3, 2012, because the doctor had advised her bed rest and her expected delivery date was the first week of Jan 2013.
‘Healthy mom, child ensure nation’s development’
RBI did not immediately respond to her Nov 2012 application for maternity leave, Neeta Kumari had told the court. In March 2013, the bank said she was not entitled to the leave because of her contact, and that her absence would be treated as leave without pay, asking her to apply for medical expense benefits, as applicable to junior-most officers of the bank.
The Calcutta High Court said RBI had “acted illegally” and asked it to compensate “in form of leave with pay” to Kumari “for the period for which the same was denied.”
Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury – rising above the legal arguments and counter-arguments of the applicability of the Maternity Benefit Act 1961, when an employee had herself signed a pre-joining contract allowing her 15-day annual medical leave and compensation – said such discrimination was also against the object of social justice.
“If it’s permitted, the object of social justice would stand deviated. Further, the same would be detrimental to the future of our country. A healthy mother and a healthy child not only ensure the growth and development of the child but of the nation as well, as the child of today would be the force behind tomorrow’s development. Depriving such benefits to the mother and the foetus or child would be tantamount to depriving the nation of its future,” the judge said.
Page Source : Times of India
