The Madras High Court stated that although maternity leave is granted to married women, the registration of the marriage is not compulsory for seeking maternity leave, unless the very validity of the marriage is questionable.
In the said case, the petitioner was employed as an office assistant in the District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate’s Court, when her husband died in 2020. Sometime later, she developed a relationship with another man and eventually got married and became pregnant. However, when she applied for maternity leave, her application was rejected because she failed to produce a marriage certificate and the Judicial Magistrate’s Court felt she wasn’t entitled to the leave since she conceived before the marriage happened.
The District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate (‘Magistrate’) doubted the validity of her marriage because she had lodged a complaint in March of 2024 alleging that her husband had lured her into a relationship with the promise of marriage due to which she had ended up conceiving. She had registered an FIR following which her husband was able to get off on anticipatory bail. When the elders and friends intervened, the two tied the knot at a temple. She was able to submit photographs of the wedding and the wedding invitation itself as proof of having married the man in the presence of near and dear ones. Yet, the magistrate maintained that the FIR wasn’t proof of marriage.
The High Court’s division bench of R. Subramanian and G. Arul Murugan, JJ observed that it was “inhuman” of the District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate to deny the woman maternity leave simply because there was no formal registration of the union. At a time when even live-in relationships are recognised by the apex court, the Magistrate appeared to have been unjustly looking for excuses to disbelieve her claims of marriage and deny her leave.
The office assistant was, therefore, awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for the mental suffering she had to undergo and also granted her the maternity leave she was entitled to. As per the Court, the petitioner would have to be granted maternity leave against full pay starting from the date of her application.
