Court No. - 7Case :- WRIT - A No. - 18813 of 2016Petitioner :- ManishaRespondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 OthersCounsel for Petitioner :- Durga TiwariCounsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Rajesh YadavHon'ble B. Amit Sthalekar,J.
Heard Smt. Durga Tiwari, learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri
Rajesh Yadav, learned counsel for the respondent no.5 and Sri
Mata Prasad, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the
respondents no.1 to 4.
The petitioner in the writ petition is claiming maternity leave.
According to her she applied for maternity leave w.e.f.
19.3.2016. In respect of her claim, the petitioner has submitted
an application dated 1.2.2016, Annexure-4 to the writ petition,
before the District Basic Education Officer, Baghpat through
the Principal, Poorva Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Gurana, Baghpat,
under receiving which has been forwarded by the Principal to
the District Basic Education Officer, Baghpat. The learned
counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance upon a
Government order dated 22.12.2015, Annexure-7 to the writ
petition, which is applicable in the case of honorary teachers,
being paid honorarium of the post graduate colleges and
submits that the petitioner is also entitled to maternity leave. A
similar matter came up before the Supreme Court in the case of
Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vs Female Workers reported
in 2000 LawSuit (SC) 487 wherein the Supreme Court referring
to Article 11 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms
of discrimination against women adopted by the United Nations
on 18.12.1979 has held that the principles laid down in Article
11 thereof must be read into the contract of service of the
women employees employed in the Municipal Corporation of
Delhi. Paragraph 34 of the judgment reads as under:-
"Delhi is the capital of India. No other City or
Corporation would be more conscious than the City of Delhi
that India is a signatory to various International
covenants and treaties. The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, adopted by the United Nations on 10th of December,
1948, set in motion the universal thinking that human
rights are supreme and ought to be preserved at all costs.
This was followed by a series of Conventions. On 18th of
December, 1979, the United Nations adopted the "Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against
women". Article 11 of this Convention provides as under:-
"Article 11
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to
eliminate discrimination against women in the field of
employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of
men and women, the same rights, in particular;
(a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human
beings;
(b) The right to the same employment opportunities,
including the application of the same criteria for
selection in matters of employment;
(c) The right to free choice of profession and employment,
the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and
conditions of service and the right to receive vocational
training and retraining, including apprenticeships,
advanced vocational train-ing and recurrent training;
(d) The right to equal remuneration, including benefits,
and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value,
as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the
quality of work;
(e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of
retire-ment, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age
and other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid
leave.
(f) The right to protection of health and to safety in
working conditions, including the safeguarding of the
function of repro-duction.
2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the
grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their
effective right to work, States Parties shall take
appropriate measures :
(a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions,
dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave
and discrimi-nation in dismissals on the basis of marital
status;
(b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with
comparable social benefits without loss of former
employment, seniority or social allowances;
(c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting
social services to enable parents to combine family
obligations with work responsibilities and participation in
public life, in particular through promoting the
establishment and develop-ment of a network of child-care
facilities;
(d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy
in types of work proved to be harmful to them.
3. Protective legislation relating to matters covered in
this article shall be reviewed periodically in the light of
scientific and technological knowledge and shall be
revised, repealed or extended as necessary."
It is not disputed that the conditions which are applicable to the
contractual women employees would also be applicable in the
case of the present petitioner and any act to the contrary would
amount to discrimination against women employees.
In this view of the matter, this writ petition is disposed of with
a direction to the respondent no.5-District Basic Education
Officer, Baghpat to consider the claim of the petitioner for grant
of maternity leave in accordance with law in the light of the
observations made above within a period of one month from the
date of receipt of a certified copy of this order in his office.
The petitioner shall also provide a copy of the application dated
1.2.2016 along with certified copy of this order to respondent
no.5.Order Date :- 27.4.2016
Kirti
