In Brief
A female government teacher in Tamil Nadu was denied maternity leave for her first child from a second marriage because she had two children from a prior marriage. The Supreme Court allowed her appeal, holding that maternity leave cannot be capped by an absolute lifetime count of biological children. Instead, the Court applied a purposive interpretation: recognizing the child born from her current marriage (in which she had no prior children) as her first biological child from that union. The Court harmonized population control policies with reproductive rights, declaring that maternity leave is a facet of Article 21 (life and dignity) and must be interpreted liberally as protective social legislation, not restrictively.
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