Supreme Court Ruling on Paternity Leave: Does It Apply to Private and Public Firms?

Inquiry on Supreme Court Judgment Regarding Paternity Leave

Is there any order or judgment of the Supreme Court regarding the provision of paternity leave in private as well as public firms? If yes, can anyone clarify the same and send a link to that judgment?

Regards

There is no such law or judgment regarding paternity leave in the private or public sector, to my knowledge. You may have provisions in your policy manual for paternity leave. There is no law that says you cannot give paternity leave. There is no law that restricts you from providing anything beyond what is required by law and that is not detrimental to any law.

Thank you.

The question of Paternity Leave is not new to India. Presently, this is a well-accepted fact, and many good companies and public sector organizations have started approving it. In the government sector, this has become a rule, and CCS Section 551, which is widely followed by many autonomous bodies and government/public sector companies, states in Section 3(g):

Paternity Leave

(i) Eligibility: Male government servant with less than two surviving children. Apprentices are also eligible.

(ii) Duration: Fifteen days during the wife's confinement.

(iii) Not to be debited to the leave account. May be combined with any other kind of leave except casual leave.

(iv) Not to be refused normally.

(v) To be applied fifteen days before or up to six months from the date of delivery. – Rule 43-A

(vi) Leave Salary: Equal to last pay drawn.

The Paternity Leave is now an accepted fact due to the reason that nowadays families have become nuclear, and there is no family support for young couples in cities.

I hope this information will be of some help to you.

I have not heard of any rules or regulations supporting it. A paternity leave is as important as a maternity leave in the West. In the West, they have long paternity leaves, which help the new father take care of his newborn and his newly delivered wife. He can spend quality time with both and keep himself away from office tension for those few days.

However, in India, this is not yet a mandatory requirement. But when we look at the trend, there are many organizations that give paternity leave to their male employees, which ranges from a basic 1 day to as long as 10-15 days. This depends on the type of organization and its growth in the sector.

Reasons for Introducing Paternity Leave

These companies have introduced this policy for the following reasons:

1. They are adapting to certain policies from the West, which would help enhance employee-employer relations.
2. Better employee satisfaction and hence better engagement.
3. Support their staff and let them know "We do care" so that they too reciprocate with the same care.

Honestly, a firm that cares for its employees is always rewarded with employees who want to give their best back to the firms they work for. There's practically no harm in introducing (if you're planning to) paternity leave in your firm. Surely, you may negotiate how many leaves to be granted. But if you bring this into your policy, I'm sure your staff is going to love that.

Hope it helped :)

As stated by Navneet Sarin, the Central Government in 1999, by notification under Central Civil Services (Leave) Rule 551(A), made provisions for paternity leave for a male Central Government employee (including an apprentice and probationer) with less than two surviving children for a period of 15 days to take care of his wife and newborn child. A male Central Government employee can avail of this leave 15 days before or within 6 months from the date of delivery of the child. If such leave is not availed within the period, it shall be treated as lapsed.

In the case of an adopted child, the same rule of Paternity Leave applies. While paternity leave is authorized for government employees, there is no law that instructs the private sector to make it obligatory. Hence, paternity leave is open to interpretation by individual companies.