(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: The Third Child Norms

Topic: The Third Child Norms

Guest:

Rekha Agarwal, (Advocate, Supreme Court)
Sushmi Dey, (Assistant Editor, National Bureau, Times of India)
Yogita Bayana, (Women and Child Rights Activist)

Topic Description:

The Uttarakhand High Court passed an order denying maternity leave to women in government jobs in case they have a third child. In an order dated September 17, Chief Justice Ramesh Rangnathan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma of the Uttarakhand High Court quashed an earlier order by a single bench. The double bench of the High Court overruled the single bench order accepting the contention of the state government, which had challenged the single bench order issued by Justice Rajeev Sharma in July 2018. The single bench order had been delivered on a PIL filed by Haldwani-based nurse Urmila Masih challenging a government rule not to provide maternity leave to women in case of a third child. Masih had said that the government's rule to not provide maternity benefits in case of a third child violates Article 42 of the Constitution of India and Section 27 of the Maternity Benefit Act. The government challenged the order of the single bench by filing a special appeal and contending that the petitioner could not claim benefits of the maternity act as she already had two children and could not be granted maternity leave for her third child in consonance with the "second provision of the fundamental rule 153".