Menstruation leave will shun women from workforce: Supreme Court

A PIL was filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, seeking directions to grant monthly leaves for female students and working women during their periods across the country.

Date: July 8, 2024

The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to entertain a plea seeking menstrual leaves for female students and professionals saying that the issue related to policy and was not an issue for the courts to look into.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has asked the Centre and the states to frame a model policy on menstrual leave for women employees.

A PIL was filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, seeking directions to grant monthly leaves for female students and working women during their periods across the country.

While hearing the petition, the court further mentioned that a decision from a court on granting such leave to women may prove to be counterproductive and “detrimental” to the cause as employers may avoid employing them.

How will the leave encourage more women to be part of the workforce, the court asked the petitioner and said mandating such leave will lead to women “being shunned from the workforce”. The bench added: “This is actually a government policy aspect and not for the courts to look into.”

The petitioner told the top court that although he submitted a representation to the Centre in May 2023, no response has been received so far.

In response to this, the bench said that since issues raise “multifarious objectives of state policy”, there is no reason for the court to “intervene” in light of its previous order.

However, the court permitted lawyer Rakesh Khanna, appearing for petitioner and lawyer Shailendra Tripathi, to move the secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati.

Earlier, in February this year, the top court had disposed of a plea seeking menstrual pain leave for women across the country.

It had then said that since the issue falls under the policy domain, a representation can be made to the Centre. The senior lawyer said that till date no decision has been taken by the Centre.

Currently, Bihar (2-days) and Kerala (3-days) are the only states in the country that have a provision for menstrual leave.