Pregnancy Cannot Be Ground To Deny Public Employment: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that pregnancy cannot be a ground to deprive a woman of public employment, observing that compelling a woman to choose between motherhood and employment violates both her reproductive rights and her right to livelihood.The Lucknow bench's order, passed on July 22 and uploaded on Thursday, came on a special appeal filed by Komal Jaiswal against the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC)'s refusal to defer her physical efficiency test (PET) for the Forest Guard and Wildlife Guard recruitment.A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Jaspreet Singh set aside the UPSSSC's decision as well as an earlier order of a single judge dismissing Jaiswal's writ petition, and directed the commission to conduct her PET within four weeks."The denial by the state and the commission of the postponement of PET to the appellant on account of her pregnancy essentially forces a woman to have a choice of either bearing a child or employment, which cannot be permitted as the same interferes with both her rights, that is right of reproduction and right to employment," the bench observed.Jaiswal had applied for the 2023 Forest Guard and Wildlife Guard recruitment. After qualifying the written examination, she was scheduled to appear for the PET in February 2026. Being nine months pregnant at the time, she sought postponement of the 14-km walking test until after childbirth, but the commission rejected her request, saying the recruitment rules contained no provision for deferring the PET.The court held that "a woman's marital status or pregnancy cannot be treated as a disqualification for public employment".It observed that since the rules did not expressly prohibit postponement of the PET, the commission should have adopted a humane and sensitive approach in such exceptional circumstances.The bench also noted that more than two years had elapsed between the recruitment advertisement and the written examination, during which marriage and pregnancy were natural life events. Penalising a woman for such circumstances would be contrary to the principles of equality and fairness, it said.The court directed that if Jaiswal qualifies the PET, medical examination and the merit list, she shall be appointed with all consequential benefits from the same date on which a lower-ranked candidate in the OBC women category was appointed.It also ordered that one post in the category be kept vacant until the exercise is completed.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)