Provisions Of Maternity Benefits Act Prevail Over Contractual Conditions, Would Apply To Contractual Employees: Madras High Court

The bench of Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that the benefits of the Maternity Benefits Act would be applicable to contractual employees and the employer could not rely on the contract of employment to deny them such benefits. 

“By virtue of Section 27, the provisions of the 1961 Act will prevail over contractual conditions denying or offering less favourable maternity benefits. Consequently, the reliance by the respondents on condition 6 of the Appointment and Posting Order to deny maternity benefits is untenable,” the court said.

The court was hearing a writ petition filed by MRB Nurses Empowerment Association to direct the Department of Health and Family Welfare in the state to extend maternity benefits including 270 days of paid maternity leave to all staff nurses working under the National Rural Health Mission scheme.

The petitioner association submitted that it was established with the sole purpose of upliftment of staff nurses. The association informed the court that the state had recruited more than 11,000 staff nurses through competitive exams on a consolidated pay of Rs. 7,000 per month which was later revised to Rs. 14,000 per month.

The association argued that they had been working under the Scheme for more than two years and were thus eligible for maternity leave of 270 days with pay as per the Maternity Benefits Act. They further submitted that the State had been denying them the benefits merely because they were contractual employees.

The State, on the hand, submitted that the nurses were not eligible for any kind of leave as applicable to regular Government servants except for casual leave and day off. The State submitted that in case of any untoward incident, the nurses were permitted to avail the leave other than casual leave and day off and the same would be considered as leave without pay.

The court ruled that as per the recent ruling of Dr Kavita Yadav v. Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Department and others, the Supreme Court had held that once a lady employee fulfils the eligibility criteria specified in Section 5(2), she would be eligible for full maternity benefits even if such benefits exceed duration of her contract.

The court thus directed the authorities to consider all pending and fresh applications for maternity benefits within 3 months and ordered accordingly.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Ms.M.Padmavathy for M/s.K.Vamanan

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.P.S.Raman Advocate-General assisted by Mr.A.Edwin Prabakar State Government Pleader Mr.T.K.Saravanan Government Advocate

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 400

Case Title: MRB Nurses Empowerment Association v. The Principal Secretary and Others

Case No: W.P.No.27556 of 2018