Maternity leave for unmarried employee.

I cant say its a strange question. Since you have not mentioned the department of the employee, I am assuming her as a teacher. Now lets see what the rules say.
(1) Maternity leave may be granted to a permanent female teacher or a non- teaching employee, on full pay, for a period which may extend upto the end of three months from the date of its commencement or to the end of six weeks from the date of confinement, whichever is earlier.
(2) Maternity leave may also be granted to a temporary female teacher or non-teaching employee, on full pay, upto four weeks prior to the date & confinement, and four weeks after the date of confinement.
PROVIDED that she has been in service for at least nine months immediately preceding the date of delivery.
(3) Maternity leave may also be granted to a female teacher or a non teaching employee in case of miscarriage or abortion subject to the condition that such leave shall not exceed six weeks and the application for the leave is supported by a certificate from a registered Medical Practitioner of a Government Hospital.
(4) Any other kind of leave, in continuation of maternity leave may be granted if the request for its grants is supported by a medical certificate.

source: https://wbxpress.com/topic/leave-rule-of-secondary-school-teaching-non-teaching-staff/
In view of the above, it is clear that the employee is not mandatorily be married. Hence the leave may be allowed to her.

Well said b_roy. You turned this topic to the right direction. Though there is no restriction as per leave rules but it is restricted by our society. Now we have to discuss on the matter whether an unmarried mother is punishable in the eye of law? If punishable, then how much will it affect her service?

According to the Circular No. ( Board’s No. 24 (N) 1170/07/G dt. 13/04/2007, a teacher/non-teaching staff would get maternity leave to adopt a child.( Married/Unmarried ? was not a factor in case of to adopted a child)135 days allowed them as maternity leave. But in the another circular issued -Board’s No. 5/214 dt. 23/08/2010 w.e.f. 01/08/2010, this leave is not more regarded as “maternity leave”. In this case the incumbent may allow to take medical leave/half pay leave/commuted leave maximum 1 year from his/her earned leave. If she has 2 children then she is availed only from her earned medical leave.
According the age of the child,that is as follows:-
1) The age of the child is below 1 month=12 months
2) The age of the child is 3 months = 09 months
3) The age of the child is 6 months =06 months
4) The age of the child is 9 month = 03 months etc.
Therefore I want to say that an unmarried teacher used to enjoy her maternity leave to adopted a child.(Am I wrong?)
But now the term “maternity leave” is deleted.
Thank you.

and, for Govt. employees other than teachers, extant rules can’t restrict an unmarried female employee to avail maternity leave, questions may arise, discussions may held but ultimately it is to be decided that there is no legal constrain as it appears from rule 199 of W.B.S.R. Part-I and subsequent amendments.

@polo: dear friend, many thanks for the reference. I think I didn’t say any thing about adopted child or posthumous birth. I told about actual birth of a child in the womb of a lady who was never married in her lifetime (And I’m keeping the surrogate mother out of this discussion and also not taking it in account that a lady may be a mother with the help of modern technology e.g. using sperm bank etc.). I was interested to know about whether there is any provision to take action against any teacher if he/she found to lose his/her moral standard,that may affect the student also. (No doubt a mother herself can be a guardian by law) Is it accepted in our society and in the eye of law in normal cases ( I mean to say when the lady didn’t undergone any registered unfortunate crime against her that lead the birth of the child). Here I would like to draw the attention to a very old play Silence!The Court Is in Session by Vijay Tendulkar. And we must remember the appointing authority (for secondary school) is the MC( so they are the the immediate boss except the HM) who I believe cannot take off the local sentiment completely and I’m not sure how much we progressed/proceeded from the age of Tendulkar (crying with the uniform of female -teachers even now). And there may be another case including sex-worker but has they got any legal status? And are they engaged in public services?
I’m not against the progress of the society. I am talking about the reality only and want to know the rule in this regard.
Now I’m sure that I have gone off topic in my diiscussion. So advance sorry to all of my friends including ‘Bithika’ who, probably, did not like to see the matter this way.
thanks,

Dear friends,
Pls understand the situations and give your decisions in the following cases?
(1) A female govt. employee, who is known to me, gave birth to twin babies on 29.08.2008. She joined govt. service in June,2010. This time she gave birth to a male child on 22.08.2012 and, applied for full Maternity Leave from 21.08.2012(the date of admission in Hospital. Office could not take decision and referred the matter to the Higher Authority for advice!
(2) A female central govt. employee (divorcee) got married to a person whose wife expired leaving behind two children. About two years after marriage the lady gave birth to a child. Her Controlling Authority sanctioned Maternity Leave on the basis of her application but, there is an objection from the H.Q. that ML is not admissible in this case because, on the date of marriage with the person, she became mother of two children who were born through the first wife of her husband. She has became very frustrated and, as advised by others, submitted a prayer for special consideration of her case! Waiting for the reply from office!