1. To become a mother is the most natural phenomenon in the life of a woman. Whatever is needed to facilitate the birth of child to a woman who is in service, the employer has to be considerate and sympathetic towards her and must realise the physical difficulties which a working woman would face in performing her duties at the workplace while carrying a baby in the womb or while rearing up the child after birth.

2. The above-stated observation laid down by S. Saghir Ahmad, J. speaking for the Supreme Court in the matter of Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs. Female Workers (Muster Roll) and Another, (2000) 3 SCC 224, aptly and squarely applies to the facts of the present case.

3. The superb question of law that emanates for consideration is whether a female Government servant/mother is entitled to avail maternity leave under Rule 38 of the Chhattisgarh Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 2010 (for short the Rules of 2010) though she begets child through the surrogacy procedure.

4. The above-stated question of law arises in this petition on the following factual backdrop.

5. The petitioner is Lecturer working in Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Utai. She performed marriage with Shri Chhatradhari Agrawal as per the Hindu rites. After completion of marriage of 26 years, she could not conceive and deliver a baby. Thereafter, the petitioner on consultation with her husband, decided to have a child through surrogacy procedure. In furtherance of said desire, in the month of June, 2015, an embryo was successfully transplanted in the womb of a surrogate mother. On 15.3.2016, the surrogate mother went into labour and the petitioner and her husband reached to the Indore Hospital. The surrogate mother delivered twin babies and the said twin babies were immediately placed in the hands of the petitioner and her husband on the same day. It is pertinent to mention here that the petitioner has incurred expenses of more than Rs. 8 lakhs in the surrogacy procedure. In order to take care of the newly born twin babies, the petitioner applied for maternity/child care leave to the Principal of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Utai for maternity leave, as according to the petitioner, she is entitled for maternity leave in view of the provisions contained in Rule 38 of the Rules of 2010 which provides that maternity leave may be granted to a female Government servant with less than two surviving children up to a period of 135 days from the date of its commencement. It further provides that during such period, she will be entitled to leave salary equal to pay drawn immediately before proceeding on leave. The said application was considered by the Principal of the petitioner's college and by letter dated 29.7.2016, it has been held that there is no provision in the Rules of 2010 to grant maternity leave to female Government servant who begets child by surrogacy procedure and also sought further instructions from the District Education Officer, Durg. The petitioner finding that the time is running fast and it is necessary to look after the twin babies, she decided to file this writ petition claiming that she is entitled for maternity leave as provided in Rule 38 of the Rules of 2010.

6. Mr. Ajay Shrivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner, would submit that Rule 38 of the Rules of 2010 makes no difference between natural mother, biological mother and a woman who has become mother through surrogacy procedure and as such, distinction cannot be made, the object being welfare and upliftment of newly born child and to develop a bond between the child and the mother which may be either a natural mother, a biological mother or a mother who has begotten a child by surrogacy procedure. Therefore, the State is absolutely unjustified in dealing the grant of maternity leave to the petitioner, as on 15.3.2016, she has begotten child by surrogacy procedure and only after four months, on 19.7.2016 it has been held by the Principal of the petitioner's