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How should service rules treat mothers who join later?
LiveLaw··13 Aug
Justice Rekha Borana restored leave after the state used a third biological child label to refuse a second maternity spell in service. Earlier Rajasthan rulings have also held that a birth just before joining cannot wipe out maternity benefits. How should recruitment rules count children so women who join after becoming mothers are not shut out of leave others receive?
Prism
What It Means For You
- Women in Rajasthan government jobs can note that a child born before joining service was held not to count toward the maternity leave cap in this case.
- If a department has refused a second in-service maternity spell by calling it a third biological child, this order is the precedent to cite with the personnel file.
- Anyone comparing state service rules with the Maternity Benefit Act can see courts reading leave as a need during employment, not a lifetime birth tally.
What's Happening
- Justice Rekha Borana of the Rajasthan High Court granted relief to a woman government employee denied her second maternity leave during service.
- The denial rested on treating the child as her third biological child, including a birth before she joined government service.
- The court said maternity leave entitlement cannot be construed in a narrow manner and excluded the pre-service child from that count.
How Courts Read Maternity Caps in Service Rules
- Rule 103 of the Rajasthan Service Rules, 1951, is the usual source of maternity leave for state employees and has been read with the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
- In 2020 the same High Court in Neeraj v State of Rajasthan held a woman entitled to maternity leave even when the child was born before she joined service.
- Two-child ceilings in service rules were designed around family planning incentives, which is why pre-service births often become the flashpoint when a later in-service birth is refused.
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