“Not a Favour, a Right”

By Binny Yadav

When Shalini Kumari, a government school teacher in Bihar, applied for maternity leave in 2022, her request was flatly denied. Her employer insisted she wasn’t entitled to it—because she was a contractual worker. It didn’t matter that she was in her third trimester, or that the Maternity Benefit Act had been amended in 2017 to guarantee 26 weeks of paid leave. Heavily pregnant, Shalini had to fight her way to the Patna High Court just to access what was legally hers.

In Delhi, Bharti Gupta, a contract employee at RITES Ltd (Rail India Technical and Economical Services Ltd), faced a similar denial. Her maternity leave was refused on the grounds that she was “temporary.” Like Shalini, Bharti had to turn to the courts to claim a right enshrined in law—but not in practice.

Their cases are not exceptions. Across India, women working in schools, hospitals, public offices and corporate boardrooms are routinely denied maternity leave due to ambiguous contracts or flawed HR interpretations, despite clear legal mandates.

It is in this context that the Supreme Court’s May 24, 2025 judgment, delivered by Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, stands out as a moment of reckoning. Overturning a Madras High Court verdict that denied leave for a third childbirth, the apex court declared unequivocally: “Maternity leave is not a gesture of charity; it is a fundamental right flowing from the constitutional guarantee of reproductive autonomy and dignity.”

This landmark ruling affirmed that no employer—public or private—can deny a woman maternity leave based on the number of children she has. The right, the Court said, is rooted in the principles of justice, dignity and reproductive choice—cornerstones of constitutional equality.

POWERFUL ON PAPER, WEAK IN PRACTICE

The 2017 amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act expanded leave from 12 to 26 weeks for women with fewer than two surviving children, and included:

• 12 weeks of leave for adoptive and commissioning mothers.
• Provisions for work-from-home.
• Coverage across public and private sectors.

In theory, this placed India among the most progressive nations on maternity rights. In practice, enforcement remains patchy and compliance elusive.

LEGAL BATTLES FOR BASIC RIGHTS

In Shalini Kumari vs State of Bihar, the Patna High Court ruled that denying maternity leave to contractual workers violated their fundamental rights. In Bharti Gupta vs RITES Ltd, the Delhi High Court held that “temporary” employment status does not negate statutory maternity benefits. In Sanchita Ghosh’s case, the Calcutta High Court reprimanded a school for denying leave to a probationer, reminding it that eligibility begins with employment—not confirmation.

Each victory was hard-won, and each exposed a structural flaw: the law is respected only when litigated. The cost—emotional, physical and financial—is one working women should not have to bear.

INFORMAL SECTOR: A LEGAL BLIND SPOT

More than 90 percent of working women in India are employed in the informal sector—domestic work, agriculture, unregistered businesses—where maternity leave remains a myth. Even in the formal private sector, many employers evade responsibility by:

• Hiring on short-term contracts.
• Avoiding formal appointment letters.
• Offering unpaid leave instead of statutory benefits.
• Pressuring women to resign before childbirth.

One teacher at a reputed NCR private school was told to either accept a month’s unpaid leave—or quit. She resigned.

ADOPTIVE AND SURROGATE MOTHERS: OVERLOOKED

Though the 2017 amendment includes adoptive and commissioning mothers, enforcement is inconsistent. A Mumbai-based adoptive mother was told she wasn’t eligible for leave because “there was no childbirth”. She received her rights only after legal intervention. Such incidents expose institutional ignorance and lack of HR training even in elite workplaces.

JUDICIAL WINS, IMPLEMENTATION GAPS

The judiciary has long upheld maternity rights—from Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Female Workers (2000) to the present. Courts have extended protections to daily wagers, probationers, and contract workers.

But legal victories have limited reach. For every case fought and won, countless more go unchallenged. The implementation gap is now a systemic crisis.

WHAT MUST CHANGE

To ensure maternity rights translate from theory to practice, India needs urgent reforms:

1. Stronger enforcement by labour departments.

2. Routine audits of HR policies in both public and private sectors.

3. Penalties for non-compliance with the Maternity Benefit Act.

4. Training for HR and administrative personnel on legal obligations.

5. A centralized grievance redressal mechanism for maternity-related violations.

The Supreme Court could not have been clearer when it said that “the denial of maternity leave undermines a woman’s dignity and her fundamental right to equality in the workplace.” Until this ethos filters down into schools, hospitals, offices and factories, India’s maternity laws will remain world-class only on paper.

The law is unambiguous. Now, it’s time for employers to comply. 

—The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist, lawyer and trained mediator

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