The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday stayed the operation of an order passed by Ramanathapuram Chief Educational Officer on April 9 for recovering salary paid to a government school teacher during her second maternity leave since it came to light that the woman had given birth to twins in her first delivery itself.
Justice S. Vaidyanathan granted the interim stay after observing that the number of babies delivered by a woman during her first pregnancy could not be cited as a reason to deny her paid maternity leave for the second delivery.
He said such leave could be restricted to number of deliveries and not number of babies begotten during those deliveries.
“If the rationale behind not granting paid maternity leave to women government servants, who already have two surviving children, was to promote the concept of a family not having more than two children, then what will you do if the woman had begotten triplets or quadruplets in the first delivery itself?” the judge asked a government counsel during the course of hearing.
He went on to state that the object of giving the benefit of paid maternity leave for first two deliveries was to help the women recover from physical stress and to take care of the new born.
When such was the case, it was not correct on the part of the government officials to contend that those who had begotten twins in first delivery could not be granted paid leave for second delivery.
