Maternity leave is a matter of law and cannot be combined with the regular leave taken by one himself, the Kerala High Court said.
A bench of Bechu Kurian Thomas was hearing a plea by an Ernakulam-based doctor who had approached the court challenging the alleged refusal of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Science (NBEMS) to approve the 402 days of leave availed by the intern. This included 184 days of maternity leave.
The board claimed that trainees would be disqualified from continuing in their program if the total leave they took exceeded a year. The petitioner stated that in addition to maternity leave, she had to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of blood cancer.
The court upheld her plea, stating that extraordinary situations require an extraordinary approach and that the general rule of limiting leave to one year cannot be mechanically applied to exceptional cases such as the appellant’s.
Published – 04 Feb 2026 20:44 IST