High Court allows paternity leave

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 24

In an out of the ordinary case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the state of Haryana and other functionaries to allow an employee to proceed on paternity leave. The direction came in a case where the petitioner-employee submitted there was no one else in his family to take care of his wife and the newborn.

The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice by Ravin Kadian after he filed a petition against the state of Haryana and other respondents. His counsel Rajat Mor submitted that the petitioner had filed an application on November 5, 2019, for grant of paternity leave. But the plea was pending consideration before the competent authority. The petitioner, as such, had not been granted 15 days’ leave to look after his wife and child. The Bench was also told that “the action of the respondents in the present case was totally contrary to the settled principles of law and violative of Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution”.

Issuing notice of motion to the state and other respondents, Justice Ritu Bahri of the High Court directed the listing of the case in March third week before ordering: “In the meantime, the respondents are directed to allow the petitioner to proceed on paternity leave with effect from January 27”. The petitioner had submitted that he had initially joined as “extension lecturer” at Jhajjar Government PG Nehru College and was working to “the utmost satisfaction of his superiors” and carrying out all additional duties on a par with the regular assistant professor. His wife was working as assistant professor in MDU.

He initially requested the college authorities for the leave. But he was advised to move an application for grant of paternity leave admissible up to 15 days in accordance with Rule 47 of Haryana Civil Services Leave Rules, 2016, for taking care of his wife and son.

Referring to a judgment by the Division Bench of Uttarakhand High Court, the petitioner submitted that the matter of granting paternity leave was discussed in the case of “Dr Shanti Mehra versus the state of Uttarakhand and others”. The Bench, vide the judgment dated December 15, 2016, directed the state government to grant 15 days paternity leave to a male employee appointed on regular basis, contractual basis, ad hoc, tenure, or temporary basis to enable the father to look after the mother and the child.