In a landmark ruling that will have far-reaching implications, the country’s top court has asserted that maternity leave is a constitutional right, regardless of the number of a children a woman might have.

Under the law, which was last amended in 2017, women are entitled to 26 weeks of paid time off for up to two children.

Now, Supreme Court justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan have ruled, “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.”

The two-judge bench was hearing a case brought to it by a government school teacher in Tamil Nadu. The teacher had had two children from a previous marriage.

Following a divorce, custody of the children went to her husband. When she remarried and had a third child, her request for maternity leave for denied. A Madras high court division bench noted she already had two surviving children and, so, was entitled to only 12 weeks and not 26 weeks of paid leave.

Even though the woman had not taken maternity leave for her first two kids who were born before she entered government service, the high court ruled that in light of the state’s two-child norm, maternity benefits could not be given for a third child.

The Supreme Court ruling overturning that narrow view is a relief not just to her........

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