Himachal Pradesh High Court upholds teacher’s right to 180-day maternity leave
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Shimla, Aug 19,
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has come to the aid of a government teacher who was denied her full maternity leave benefits after regularization of her services, holding that the authorities acted unfairly in curtailing her leave and ordering recovery of salary.
Justice Sandeep Sharma, while deciding CWP Kamini Sharma vs State of Himachal Pradesh & Ors., quashed departmental orders dated December 13, 2021, December 23, 2021, and June 19, 2025, which had cancelled the petitioner’s sanctioned leave and treated her absence as extraordinary leave.
The Court noted that Sharma, appointed as a JBT teacher on contract in 2018, gave birth on August 21, 2021, and was sanctioned 180 days maternity leave. However, midway through this period, on October 21, 2021, her services were regularized under the State’s policy. She joined on a regular basis the very next day, October 22, 2021, submitting the mandatory medical fitness certificate for regularization but also expressly intimating that her joining was in continuity of her ongoing maternity leave.
Also read:Maternity leave protected under Law, even during regularization: Himachal Pradesh HC
Despite this, the Education Department later curtailed her leave, limiting it to 60 days and treating her subsequent absence as extraordinary leave without pay. It even passed a recovery order in June 2025.
Justice Sharma held that such action was not sustainable. “Submission of Medical Fitness Certificate, in the peculiar facts and circumstances, could not have given any right to the respondents to curtail the maternity leave of the petitioner, which was already sanctioned to her for a period of 180 days,” the Court observed.
The Court further noted that the authorities had initially accepted her communication clarifying continuity of maternity leave at the time of regularization. No notice was issued before treating her absence as extraordinary leave, which deprived her of an opportunity to explain.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the petition, directing the State to release all due maternity leave benefits to the petitioner within four weeks, failing which interest at 6% per annum would apply from the date the amount fell due until payment.
The judgment reaffirms the constitutional protection of motherhood and underlines that administrative formalities such as medical fitness certification cannot be misused to curtail maternity entitlements.
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