two female contract employees working under the Respondent No.

2, namely,
Department of Women & Child Development. Their grievance is that they have been
denied the maternity leave admissible to them under the Rules.
applied for maternity leave through proper channel expecting her date of delivery as
27.7.2012 but the Respondent No.2 rejected it by returning the said representation in
original itself, said leave not entitled.
because the Applicants are contractual employees in the matter of maternity leave there
cannot be any discrimination. Extra Ordinary Leave is dealt with under Rule 32 which
falls in Chapter IV dealing with kinds of leave due and admissible. As against this, the
maternity leave falls in Chapter V dealing with special kind of leaves other than study
leave.
that if there was no provision in the Rules for granting maternity leave, could the
petitioner still claim special maternity leave. The question was answered in the
affirmative. 
Merely because the respondents would chose to put her on consolidated salary and
state it to be a contractual appointment, the fact that she is a women employee cannot
be lost sight of and the essential benefits fundamentally dealing with the very basis of
human rights of allowing maternity benefit to the woman cannot be and ought not to
have been ignored; and the petitioner ought to have been allowed maternity leave as
applied for. . Section 27 of the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961, deals with effect of laws in
agreement inconsistent with that Act. Sub section (1) of Section 27 of the Maternity Act,
1961 provides that the provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything
inconsistent therewith contained in any other law or in the terms of any award,
agreement or contract of service. Sub Section (2) of this Section, however, provides that
it will be open to the woman to enter into agreement with her employer for granting her
rights and privileges in respect of any matters which are more favourable to her than
those to which she would be entitled to under this Act.
 Absence of such a provision in the agreement between the parties will not help so as to
deprive the applicant of her maternity leave in view of Section 27 of the Maternity
Benefits Act, 1961,
The application is, therefore, allowed.
 It consequently issued a direction to the management of the Municipal Corporation,
Delhi to extend the benefits of Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 to such muster roll female
employees who were in continuous service of the management for three years or more
and who fulfilled the conditions set out in section 5 of the Act.

(i) Whether the female workers working on muster roll should be given any maternity
benefit?
(ii) If so, what directions are necessary in this regard.

therefore, Rule 43 of Leave Rules is applicable to contract employees like the Applicants.
The said rule reads as under:-

43. Maternity Leave (1) A female Government servant (including an apprentice) with
less than two surviving children may be granted maternity leave by an authority
competent to grant leave for a period of [180 days] from the date of commencement.

allow cost of litigation quantified at Rs.5000/- to Applicant No.1 and Rs.2500/- to

Applicant No.2 which shall be paid to them within the aforesaid period of 2 months.