Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 20: In a major ruling on maternity rights and workplace gender justice, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed two appeals filed by Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd holding that women employees cannot be placed at a disadvantage merely because they availed maternity leave.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal passed the judgment in LPA No. 34/2026 and LPA No. 27/2026, arising out of the cases of Tanu Gupta, Basu Magotra, Isha Sudan and Bintul Hudda against J&K Bank.
The bank had challenged the writ court judgment dated August 25, 2025, whereby it was directed to treat the period spent by the women employees on maternity leave as continuous service for completion of their two-year assessment period.
The writ court had also directed the bank to extend benefits under Circular No. 752 dated March 12, 2021, including revised pay scale, adjustment pay, variable pay and consequential benefits with retrospective effect.
The bank argued that the respondents were initially engaged on contractual basis for two years and were to be regularised only after successful assessment. It submitted that maternity leave was not denied, but the contractual period was extended by the number of days spent on leave.
According to the bank, since the employees had accepted the leave conditions without protest, they were barred from later challenging the delayed regularisation.
Rejecting the bank’s stand, the Division Bench held that excluding maternity leave from service calculation resulted in a clear disadvantage to the women employees and effectively penalised them for motherhood. The court observed that maternity leave cannot be treated as a break in service to deny benefits that would otherwise have accrued to them.
The bench said that any ambiguity or silence in rules governing maternity benefits must be interpreted in favour of female employees. It held that maternity benefit provisions must advance the cause of women employees and not be used to create disentitlement.
The court relied upon constitutional principles under Articles 15, 38, 39 and 42 of the Constitution of India and referred to Supreme Court judgments.
The bench also rejected the bank’s plea of acquiescence, holding that such a doctrine cannot be used to defeat fundamental rights. It observed that the employees had no real bargaining power and were at the mercy of the employer, where any protest could have exposed them to the risk of termination.
In strong remarks, the court said J&K Bank had chosen to flex its institutional muscles against its female employees instead of accommodating and honouring motherhood. It held that such an approach was impermissible in law.
Finding no merit in the appeals, the High Court upheld the writ court judgment as well-reasoned and in accordance with law, and dismissed both appeals.
Senior Advocate Raman Sharma with Kartikay Sharma appeared for J&K Bank, while Senior Advocate Amit Gupta with Sumit Moza represented the women employees.
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