Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court has set aside the medical education department’s order rejecting a nurse’s maternity leave application citing a two-year gap rule between her two pregnancies. The court said the Code on Social Security, 2020, does not place any such embargo between two pregnancies.Justice Siddharth Nandan cancelled the department’s Jan 9 order and directed the petitioner, Shikha Yadav, to submit a fresh application for the maternity leave available to her under the Code on Social Security, 2020.He further directed the health department to take an appropriate decision in light of the court’s observations and the law laid down by the high court.Yadav is a regularly appointed staff nurse/nursing officer under the department of medical education, UP govt. She was earlier granted 180 days’ maternity leave from Jan 29, 2024, to July 27, 2024, through an office order dated Feb 12, 2024. Thereafter, she conceived again, and the expected date of delivery was Jan 12, 2026.She submitted an application dated Jan 5, seeking 180 days’ maternity leave from Jan 19 to July 17. The application was rejected solely on the ground that two years had not elapsed since the earlier spell of maternity leave. The authority relied on the govt order dated Dec 8, 2008, and Rule 153(1) of the UP Financial Handbook applicable to the department of medical education.In its judgment, dated July 15, the court observed: “It is held that the provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020, shall prevail over any executive instructions, including Rule 153(1) of the Financial Handbook, Volume II, Parts 2 to 4, which has also been read down by a coordinate bench of this court in another case related to the grant of maternity benefits for the second pregnancy.”
