Ms Trishna,
What I perceive reg Earned leave and Privilege leave is, Earned leave is one which one earns on the basis of working days as per Factories Act. Every Management has a prerogative to have its own leave policy for it's employees. Management may prefer to provide leaves strictly as provided in the Factories i.e. One earned leave for every 20 days of working, this leave is what we call as earned leave i.e. 15 days in a year. Similarly 7 CLs will be permitted under the Act. But most managements restrict this calculation to a group of employees (Workmen) and may prefer to provide different set of leave rules to Office Staff and Officers and may provide Privilege leave (EL), Casual Leave and Sick Leave in excess of what is given to the other group/provided in the Factories Act. Ofcourse Sick Leave will be provided to those who are not convered under ESI. Privilege leave provided by the Management could be 30 days in a year (CLs 10 days in a year normally), some managements provide the same twice in a year i.e. from 1st January and 1st July every year. This leave can be carried forward to a certain limit at the discretion of the management, Privelege leave accumulated beyond that limit gets lapsed and encashment of this leave is also permitted by the Management in many companies. Sick leave also will be allowed to be accumulated to certain limit beyond which the unavailed SL will get lapsed. CL has to be availed during the year and unavailed CL at the end of the year gets automatically lapsed. Every management can at their discretion formulate their own leave policy and implement the same. Statute only provides the minimum eligibility, but never limits the same.
Hope I made the matter clear.
Joga Rao