The Madras High Court has reiterated that women employees cannot be denied maternity leave even during third pregnancy and directed the Chief Secretary to circulate its order among all heads of departments in the State government so that they adhere to it scrupulously in future.
The High Court’s second Division Bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and Shamim Ahmed expressed dismay over the officials continuing to deny maternity leave for third confinement despite multiple orders passed by the High Court in favour of grant of such benefit to women employees.
The judges found that even the Registrar (Management) of the High Court had denied maternity leave to court employee P. Mangaiyarkkarasi though the official was informed that the High Court had in a similar case ordered grant of such a benefit during third pregnancy too.
The Division Bench directed the Registrar General of the High Court also to circulate a copy of their order to all the judicial officers who were the heads of the units in the district judiciary throughout the State for strict compliance with respect to the court employees.
Allowing a writ petition filed by Ms. Mangaiyarkkarasi, the Division Bench said that in at least two cases in the past, the High Court had, relied upon Supreme Court decisions, to rule that women employees could not be denied maternity leave even during third confinement.
Though one of those decisions was brought to the notice of the Registrar (Management), the latter had interpreted that the judgement would be applicable only to the litigant in that case and not to others. “This kind of interpretation… cannot be appreciated,” the Bench wrote.
Authoring the verdict for the Division Bench, Justice Kumar said, the judgements delivered by the High Court in those two cases could only be considered as an order in rem (applicable in general to all) and not in personam (applicable to a particular individuals).
“When two Division Benches successively passed orders on the same issue with the similar facts… we expect the present respondents, i.e., the High Court Registry and also the district judiciary to understand the legal principle enunciated in those decisions and pass appropriate orders,” the Bench said.
The judges also set aside the Registrar (Management)’s order refusing to grant maternity leave to the writ petitioner and ordered that the latter must be extended the benefit, as per her entitlement, for the period between August 8, 2025 and August 7, 2026 with all attendant and service benefits.
Published – January 24, 2026 11:52 pm IST
