The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition seeking maternity leave for a government employee’s fourth child, holding that a woman with two or more surviving children is not entitled to the leave even when applying for the first time.
A single bench of Justice Manju Rani Chauhan passed the order on a petition filed by Shashi Kumari, who had challenged a 19 June 2026 order that rejected her request for six months of maternity leave for her fourth child.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that she had not taken leave for the birth of her first three children, and that refusing the benefit when she was availing it for the first time was arbitrary and legally unsustainable.
The State opposed the plea, submitting that under the Financial Handbook Volume II, Parts 2 to 4 (Chapter 10), maternity leave is sanctioned for up to 180 days from the date of delivery and can be granted again only after two years have passed since the end of the previous leave.
The governing condition, the State submitted, bars maternity leave where a woman government servant already has two or more surviving children, regardless of whether the leave would otherwise be admissible. The court also noted that a separate provision exists for six weeks of leave in cases of miscarriage, and that the petition was accompanied only by typed copies of documents carrying typographical errors rather than photostat copies of the originals.
The two-surviving-children restriction is a long-standing eligibility limit across most government service rules in India, tied to the state’s small-family norm. The order lands amid a series of maternity leave petitions before the Allahabad High Court in 2026 turning on the interplay between the U.P. Financial Handbook and central law.
