HC Directs UT Government to Release Full Salary, Allowances to Senior Resident Doctors During Maternity Leave and Extended Residency Period
Jammu, July 11: In a significant judgment reinforcing the rights of working women, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has ruled that maternity leave is a constitutional right and cannot be treated as an act of State charity. The Court directed the Union Territory Government to pay full salary and allowances to Senior Resident Doctors during their maternity leave as well as the corresponding extended period of residency.
Justice Rajnesh Oswal passed the ruling while allowing a petition challenging a government communication dated October 14, 2025, which had denied salaries to Senior Residents and Tutors during maternity leave on the ground that they were “out of assignment.”
The Court quashed the impugned communication, holding that the Government’s decision was legally unsustainable and contrary to the principles governing maternity benefits.
Rejecting the Government’s contention that Senior Resident Doctors were tenure-based appointees and therefore not entitled to paid maternity leave, the Court observed that once the UT administration had itself extended maternity leave through its order dated July 8, 2024, in accordance with the applicable rules, it could not subsequently deny salary and allowances for the same period.
Justice Oswal remarked that the Government could not “blow hot and cold” by granting maternity leave on one hand while withholding the financial benefits attached to it on the other.
Emphasising the constitutional protection available to working women, the Court held that maternity leave cannot be reduced to a matter of State charity and that payment of full salary during such leave is an inseparable consequence of the right itself. Any arbitrary executive decision denying those benefits, the Court said, would violate constitutional guarantees.
While relying on the earlier Division Bench judgment in Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd. v. Tanu Gupta, the High Court directed the UT Government to release full pay and allowances for the entire maternity leave period and the corresponding extended period of residency without delay.
The judgment is expected to provide significant relief to Senior Resident Doctors and strengthen maternity rights for women employees serving in government institutions across Jammu and Kashmir. (KNC)
