Uttarakhand High Court has directed the State government to grant 180 days (six months) of maternity leave to the women employees working on regular, contractual, or ad hoc basis.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Alok Singh and Justice Rajiv Sharma that was hearing two cases on Thursday where the petitioners were denied maternity leave further directed the State to grant atleast 60 days of maternity leave to the women working as daily wage employees if they have been "working for more than 240 days in a block of 12 months calendar with full wages".
The High Court directed the State to neither terminate nor remove any woman employee just before her delivery and deprive her of the maternity leave.
Also, the State must grant 730 days of Child Care Leave (CCL) to the women employees who have children. Howvever, the children must not be more than 18 yearsold.
“To enable the father to look after the mother and child,” the Court further ordered the State to grant 15 days of paternity leave to the male employees working on either regular, contractual, or ad hoc basis.
