In an unfortunate incident in Maharashtra, an anganwadi worker knocked the doors of Bombay High Court to challenge the state government’s decision to dismiss her from job for having more than two children that does not adhere the state’s rule of ‘small family’. The victim received a letter from the state authorities that mentioned that she wa being dismissed from work since she had three children.
The petitioner, Tanvi Sodaye, began working for the states Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme in 2002 and was promoted to the post of an Anganwadi Sevika in 2012. The letter informed her a 2014 Government Resolution (order) mandated that state employees in various departments, including the ICDS scheme, must not have more than two children.
In her plea, filed through advocate Ajinkya M Udane, Sodaye, however, argued that her dismissal from service on the ground that she had more than two kids was illegal since she was already eight months pregnant with her third child when the August 2014 GR came into effect.
“Such candidates across several government departments, who did not fit into this definition, either faced disqualification from future employment prospects, lost out on several benefits, or faced dismissal from their services,” said Kumbhakoni, who appeared for the state.
While Sodaye approached the high court in April this year, just a month after her dismissal, her plea was taken up by the court for hearing for the first time only last week. In the hearing, advocate Udane told a bench of Justices RM Savant and MS Karnik that his clients appointment letter, or the letter confirming her promotion to an Anganwadi Sevika, did not have any clause restricting the number of children she could have.
Besides, he argued, since she was already eight months pregnant when the GR in question came into effect, in her case, applying its provisions would mean applying a law retrospectively. The same, he said, was unfair and urged the court to quash the state’s order of her dismissal.
The state however, told the bench that though the August 2014 GR was specifically introduced by the Women and Child Development Department to define the terms and conditions of the appointment of Anganwadi Sevikas and other employees under the ICDS, the government had been propagating the ‘small family’ rules since 2005.
