Private school employees entitled to child care leaves on par with government counterparts: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ruled that employees of unaided private schools in the national capital are entitled to child care leaves (CCL) on par with their counterparts in government schools.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia relied on Rule 111 of the Delhi School Education Rules, 1973, which states that employees of recognised private schools are entitled to the same leave benefits as employees of corresponding status in government schools.

The Bench noted that CCL is available to government school employees under Rule 43(C) of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972 and, therefore, must also be extended to employees in recognised private schools.

“Since irrespective of the fact as to whether a particular kind of leave has or does not have character of money, Rule 111 grants the benefit of leave of absence to an employee of a recognized private school, whether aided or unaided, at par with such employees working in a corresponding status in a government school, in our opinion, the benefit of CCL will be available to those employees working in unaided recognized and privately managed schools in Delhi as well, as is available to the employees of the government schools,” the Court ruled. 

In doing so, the Division Bench set aside the order of a single-judge who had rejected the petition filed by Sangeeta Negi, a teacher at Bharti Public School. Negi had sought CCL from May to September 2025 to support her son. Her request had been denied by the school and the single judge dismissed her petition.

In its judgement, the Division Bench also referred to an earlier decision in Amandeep Kaur v, Union of India and underscored that CCL serves an important social purpose by promoting family welfare and protecting the interests of children. 

“Resultantly, the appeal is allowed and the impugned order dated 08.08.2025 passed by the learned Single Judge in WP(C) 11903/2025 is set aside. The respondent School is directed to consider the prayer for grant of CCL made by the appellant afresh and decide the same with expedition,” the Court ultimately ordered. 

Advocates Sermon Rawat and Aastha Vishwakarma appeared for Negi. 

Advocates BC Pandey, SP Kamrah, Puneet Batra and Aryavansh Kamrah represented the school. 

Advocates Yeeshu Jain, Jyoti Tyagi, Vishruti Pandey and Sachin Garg represented the Delhi government. 

[Read Judgment]