Give childcare leave when mom, child need it: Cal HC
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Kolkata: Calcutta High Court rapped Calcutta Girls' College for denying to grant child care leave (CCL) of 189 days to an economics assistant professor for looking after her 13-month-old twin daughters.
"If the nourishing years of the two infants are not the right time to grant CCL to the petitioner, then one wonders whether the Governing Body of the College was trying to save it for a later period when there may possibly be no need for such leave. Denying the petitioner such leave for the said period would amount to indirectly flouting the applicable law in this regard," Justice Jay Sengupta said on May 19.
Justice Sengupta directed the college authorities to sanction the 189 days of CCL and release the salaries due for such a period within six weeks.
The assistant professor approached the HC seeking to overturn the decision of Calcutta Girls' College made on Jan 11, 2024, which rejected her child care leave from Jan 11, 2023 to July 18, 2023, and directed her to refund the salary received during that period.
She conceived in March 2021. Suffering from pregnancy-related complications, she took maternity leave for 180 days, from Nov 12, 2021 to May 10, 2022. She gave birth via caesarean to twin daughters on Nov 26, 2021.
She returned to work on May 11, 2022, and on the same day, she applied for child care leave to look after her daughters at her Siliguri home, as her husband was abroad and her elderly parents-in-law were ill.
Suffering from post-pregnancy complications, she applied for CCL from July 21, 2023 to Oct 31, 2023, which was sanctioned, and leave without pay from Nov 1, 2023 to Feb 29, 2024, which was also approved. She resumed duties on March 1, 2024.
According to the rules outlined in the memorandum of Jan 18, 2016, a female employee is entitled to child care leave for a period of two years, i.e., 730 days, during her entire service period, until the eldest two of her children reach the age of 18 years. She can apply three times within a year or apply at once for one year.
The judge stated that there was no reason for the governing body not to have considered her application favourably and not to sanction the disputed days of CCL. She was within her rights to claim CCL, the judge noted.
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