Panaji : The High Court of Bombay at Goa has ruled that maternity leave is a legislative mandate that supersedes any contrary service rules, regardless of whether an employee’s appointment is permanent or temporary. Citing Supreme Court judgments, the court said that such benefits cannot be denied based on the nature of employment.
The ruling came in response to a petition filed by Dr. Priyanka Amonkar, who had completed her postgraduate degree in 2013 and was appointed as a senior resident in the Department of Pediatrics at Goa Medical College (GMC) in July of the same year. In January 2016, she applied for six months of maternity leave, which was sanctioned ex-post facto on February 19, 2016, for the period from January 18 to July 15, 2016. However, the leave was granted without pay. Upon inquiring about the unpaid nature of her leave, Dr. Amonkar was informed that the Goa (Appointment in the post Residents in Goa Medical College) (Second Amendment) Rules, 2013, notified on June 19, 2013, mandated that she serve an additional period equivalent to her maternity leave after completing three years as a senior resident.
The High Court ruled in favour of Dr. Amonkar, directing the authorities to quash the February 19, 2016 order to the extent that it granted unpaid leave. It further ordered the respondents to pay her salary for the maternity leave period from July 15, 2016.
Dr. Amonkar had relied on a 2019 ruling by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in Archana Dahifale vs. State of Maharashtra (2019 (2) Mh L J 697), which held that maternity benefits under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, cannot be denied on the grounds that an employee’s appointment is temporary or ad-hoc. The court reaffirmed that no female employee can be denied maternity benefits based on the nature of her employment, as the Act is intended to protect the rights of working mothers.
