HC: Citizens can’t be forced to choose between right to education, reproductive autonomy

Citizens cannot be forced to choose between their right to education and their right to exercise reproductive autonomy, the Delhi high court has observed, while granting relief to a woman candidate seeking relaxation of her attendance to complete her Master of Education (MEd) course after she was denied maternity leave.

The court was hearing the plea of the woman, seeking a direction to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to frame specific rules and regulations for the grant of maternity leave for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The petitioner enrolled with the Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, for a two-year MEd course in December 2021. Later, she filed an application for maternity leave before the concerned dean and the vice-chancellor of the varsity, who rejected her request on February 28.

Granting her relief on May 23, justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav in a judgment said that the Constitution has envisaged an egalitarian society where citizens could exercise their rights and the society as well as the State would allow the manifestation of their rights.

“The citizens could not be forced to choose between their right to education and their right to exercise reproductive autonomy… A man could then well enjoy parenthood while pursuing his higher education, whereas a woman necessarily has to undergo pre and post pregnancy care. It is not her choice, but the will of nature. What is, however, left for us to decide is the consequence we would impose upon a woman who bears a child,” the court said.

Setting aside the decision of the varsity’s dean and vice-chancellor, justice Kaurav directed the university to consider her application for 59 days of maternity leave afresh against the theory classes.

The court said that in case the petitioner fulfils the minimum 80% attendance criteria in theory classes, after accounting for the 59 days maternity leave, then appropriate steps need to be taken to allow the petitioner to appear in the examination by the university without any delay.

The judge further observed that it has been held in various judgments that the right of women to avail the benefit of maternity leave in the workplace is as an integral aspect of the right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.

It added that the court as well as the society has “two roads to follow in such cases” — to either follow the “bare text of an existing legal provision and be blind to the consequences of law”, or be sensitive to the person and applying the constitutional values.

“The first path would force a woman to necessarily choose between her right to a higher education and the right of becoming a mother. A woman would then have to either re-engage herself in the activity that she was previously pursuing and was halted by her pregnancy or would have to remain content with her having been unable to complete her vocation or education,” the court said.