An anganwadi worker in Maharashtra has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the State government’s decision to dismiss her from her job for having more than two children and thus not adhering to its ‘Small Family’ rules.
The petitioner, Tanvi Sodaye, began working for the State’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme in 2002 and was promoted to the post of an Anganwadi Sevika in 2012.
2014 resolution
In March this year, however, she received a written communication from the State authorities informing her that she was being dismissed from work since she had three children. The letter informed her that a 2014 Government Resolution (GR) 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, Ms. Sodaye, however, argued that her dismissal from service on grounds 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.
While Ms. 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 R. M. Savant and M. S. Karnik that his client’s 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.
8 months pregnant
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.