Have you all heard about the latest rule made by the high court of Punjab and Haryana? The rule is that women with two or fewer children can only apply for maternity leave. Now a question may arise in your mind that what is the exact reason behind framing such a rule. There must be some strong cause behind such a sudden decision that the Punjab and Haryana high court had taken. Yes, there was an incident that happened in the city which insisted cour come to such a decision. This whole incident/story revolves around a nurse. This blog is going to give a detailed summary which will solve all your doubts regarding the matter.
What is the matter?
Post Graduate Institute of Medical education and research, Chandigarh had rejected the appeal of one of their nursing staff to allow maternity leave. So she challenged their rejection to the high court bench of Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sant Parkash.
The starting point of the incident
The nurse gave birth to her biological baby. This baby is her first child. So she had applied for maternity leave to the hospital. This child was from her husband who already is a father of two children. It means that this nurse is his second wife.
According to the report, the nurse had applied for leave from June 2019 to September 2019. The PGIMER was against her maternity leave, so denied it. And converted the maternity leave to earned leave.
She did not approach the high court first against the decision of the hospital. She initially went to the Central Administrative Tribunal for justice. But that did not work for her. Because here the decision went against her and she failed to get relief.
When the court interrogated PGIMER, they told that in the official document, the nurse had registered the name of two children from her husband’s first wife. For that, she had already availed facilities of child care leave and treatment many times.
As per the rules of Central Civil Services(Leave) Rules, 1972, the hospital did not allow her maternity leave as she was not eligible for that. Because she already is a mother of two living children.
Let us now focus on the statements that the nurse had given in front of the court
She argued against the statements made by the hospital authorities. She said that she had appealed for maternity leave for her biological first child. She had the belief that should have been given the leave. It was her right. They just could not dismiss her maternity leave on the ground of her having two living children from her husband’s first marriage.
The high court bench went through the service rules. According to the rules, female servants of the government having more than two surviving children can not be granted maternity relief. According to the high court, the petitioner had been declared the mother of two surviving children from her married man’s first marriage. So her biological child would be considered as her third child.
Conclusion
The court also noticed that the female had also enjoyed the child care leave and treatment in the name of her two living children. This means she had cheated the hospital on many occasions. The court denied the nurse’s appeal and this is how it showed respect to the decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal.
