New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, May 23rd, observed that maternity leave is integral to maternity benefits and reproductive rights are now recognised as part of international human rights law like the right to health, privacy, equality and non-discrimination and dignity, PTI reported.
The top court also set aside a Madras High Court judgement declining maternity leave to a Tamil Nadu government school teacher and said she was entitled to the benefit despite having two children from a previous marriage. A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan did not agree with the findings of the high court that had denied her maternity benefits. "Thus, as can be seen..., through various international conventions, the world community has recognised the broad spectrum of reproductive rights which includes maternity benefits.
"Maternity leave is integral to maternity benefits. Reproductive rights are now recognised as part of several intersecting domains of international human rights law viz. the right to health, right to privacy, right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to dignity," the verdict said.
The court emphasised the expansive scope of Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, including the right to health, dignity, and reproductive choice.
"By judicial interpretation, it has been held that life under Article 21 means life in its fullest sense; all that which makes life more meaningful, worth living like a human being. The right to life includes all the finer graces of human civilisation, thus rendering this fundamental right a repository of various human rights. The right to life also includes the right to health. Right to live with human dignity and the right to privacy are now acknowledged facets of Article 21," it said.
It also referred to Article 42, which mandates just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief and criticised a rigid interpretation of administrative rules that deny such benefits based on numerical limits on children.