CHENNAI: Maternity benefits cannot be granted for a third pregnancy, the Madras High Court observed while dismissing a petition filed by a government servant seeking maternity leave for her third pregnancy on Monday.
The petitioner, a lab assistant in a municipal high school in Erode, has two children from her first marriage. As her husband died on April 7, 2004, she had a second marriage in January 2021 when she was pregnant with twins.
Though she had applied for maternity leave benefits, the school headmaster and the District Educational Officer rejected it, following which she filed a writ petition before the high court seeking directions to accord her benefits. The court upon hearing the petition said maternity benefits cannot be provided for third pregnancy and dismissed her petition.