Madras HC orders maternity leave for teacher’s 3rd delivery

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu government to grant maternity leave to a government employee for her third delivery.

TR Lakshmi, who had been working as an English teacher (PG assistant) at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Podhaturpet, Tiruvallur district, had approached the Madras High Court, challenging the Tiruvallur Chief Educational Officer’s decision rejecting her request for one-year maternity leave and related benefits for her third delivery.

In her petition, Lakshmi stated that in 2019, when she was working in Tiruvannamalai, she was granted 270 days of leave for her first delivery, and one year for her second delivery. However, the authorities refused to grant her leave for her third childbirth.

While her third child was born in July, she has been on medical leave until now, instead of maternity leave, which she was denied, she noted.

During the hearing, the bench of Justices R Suresh Kumar and Hemant Chandangoudar referred to a Supreme Court order that maternity leave must be granted to a woman who becomes pregnant for the third time, even if she had two children before joining service. The court further directed the Tiruvallur Chief Educational Officer to grant Lakshmi the maternity leave she is legally entitled to.