Surrogate mothers entitled to maternity leave: HC

 A woman who is in government service and has a child through surrogacy, is also entitled to maternity leave, the Delhi high court ruled on Friday, holding that denial of leave would be detrimental to both mother and child.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher said confining maternity leave to only where a female employee herself carries a child, “would be turning a blind eye to the advancement that science has made”. The court added the word ‘maternity’ would also cover a situation, where a female employee engages services of another woman to conceive a child with or without the genetic material being supplied by her and/or her male partner. The court arrived at this ruling while partially agreeing with the Centre’s argument that the word maternity can be attributed to only those women employees, who conceive and carry the child during pregnancy.