Maternity leave up to 180 days cannot be claimed by every woman employee: HC

High Court of J&K and Ladakh has held that maternity leave up to 180 days cannot be claimed by every woman employee.

 

Deciding a petition filed by a lady doctor working in SKIMS Soura here, a bench of Justice Muhammad Akram Chowdhary pointed out that the employer has to keep in mind the nature of duties of such employees as well. The doctor had challenged an order of the tertiary care hospital authority by virtue of which she was granted 45 days maternity leave from December 11 last year to January 24, 2022. In her plea, the medico had sought the court intervention for grant of her maternity leave up to 180 days instead of 45 days.

The petitioner contended that she was entitled to the maternity leave as a ìmatter of rightî and was seeking direction in keeping with the SRO-353 dated 6 October 2015.