CHENNAI: Dubbing it as “inhuman”, Madras HC censured a judicial magistrate for denying maternity leave to an office assistant who remarried after the demise of her first husband, on the grounds that there was no proof of her second marriage, reports Sureshkumar K.
Kodavasal, the district munsif-cum-judicial magistrate of Thiruvarur, even went to the extent of speculating that the second marriage appeared to have taken place after the pregnancy.
Setting aside the order returning the application for maternity leave, a division bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice G Arul Murugan directed the registrar-general of the high court to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation for the mental agony the woman suffered.
“The action of the judicial officer, to say the least, is inhuman. At a time when even live-in relationships are recognised bySupreme Court, the judicial officer appears to have taken an archaic view of the matter,” the bench said. According to the petitioner, she remarried in 2024, after the demise of her husband in 2020.
“No doubt, maternity leave is granted to married women. A marriage need not be compulsorily registered,” the high court said.
