The Supreme Court of India on Friday dismissed the petition related to granting leave to girl students and women employees during the periods and suggested the petitioners to go to the Central Government in this matter. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice JB Pardiwala's bench, while hearing the matter, said that since it is a policy issue, the petitioners should approach the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Central Government. The application should be made there.

Apart from the petition related to leave for women during the mensural period, a law student had also filed a caveat in the Supreme Court on this issue. during the hearing, when the caveat came before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, he warned the student, 'You go to the library and study, what is the point of interfering in court proceedings? You have no business here. The CJI also said that this caveat was inserted just to gain publicity.

CJI said that we do not want law students to jump into such things. However, the bench appeared to agree with the argument of the caveat student that if this kind of leave is forced, the institutions may start cutting back on giving jobs to women.

Let us tell you that in the PIL that was filed in the Supreme Court, a demand was made for leave during periods for girl students and working women across the country. In the petition, specifically citing companies like Zomato, Byju's, Swiggy, Mathrubhumi, ARC Group, it was said that these companies give paid period leave and on this basis, the Supreme Court was demanded that the state governments should be allowed to pay period leave.

In the petition, there was also a demand for effective implementation of section 14 of the Maternity Benefit Act. There is a provision for appointment of Inspector for effective implementation of this Act. It was also said in the petition that only the Meghalaya government had issued a notification for the appointment of such inspectors in the year 2014. It was stated in the petition that depriving women of period leave is a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution i.e. the right to equality.

Case Title: Shailendra Mani Tripathi v. UoI And Ors.

Citation: WP(C) No. 172/2023

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PIL for Menstrual leave dismissed by SC stating that the matter fell within the domain of policy

Appearances of the Advocates:-

For Petitioner(s) 
Mr. Vishal Tiwari, Adv.
Mr. Abhigya Kushwah, AOR
Mrs. Sunita Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Adv.
Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Manisha, Adv.
Mr. Upendra Mani Tripathi, Adv.
Mr. Aakar Shrivastav, Adv.
Mr. Abhishek Jaiswal, Adv.
Mr. Rajvardhan Singh, Adv.

For Respondent(s) 
Mr. Satya Mitra, Adv.
Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, AOR