Supreme Court strikes down law giving maternity leave only to mothers adopting children under 3 months

The Supreme Court has struck down a law that allowed maternity leave to only those mothers who legally adopt a child below three-months of age, terming it as “unconstitutional” and “violative of the Right to Equality”. The court also ruled that adoption is part of the right to reproductive autonomy.

The bench also held that an adoptive mother should be entitled to maternity leave of 12 weeks, irrespective of the age of the adopted child.

“A woman who legally adopts a child, or a commissioning mother, shall be entitled to maternity benefit for a period of 12 weeks from the date the child is handed over to the adopting mother or the commissioning mother, as the case may be,” the bench said, Livelaw reported.

In this context, adoptive mothers of children above three months are similarly situated to those adopting younger infants, as both require time for bonding, caregiving and adjustment. Denying benefits based solely on the child’s age creates an artificial and unreasonable classification, it reasoned.

The court further noted that the provision fails to account for the significant emotional, psychological and practical adjustments that accompany adoption, irrespective of the child’s age.

“Section 60(4) of the 2020 Code, insofar as it puts an age limit of three months on the age of the adoptive child for the adoptive mother to avail maternity benefit, is violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution,” the Supreme Court bench said.

“The distinction drawn by subsection 4 of section 60 does not have a rational nexus with the object of the 2020 Code. The object of maternity benefit is not associated with the process of childbirth but with the process of motherhood. The purpose of maternity protection does not vary with the manner in which the child is brought into the life of the beneficiary mother. Insofar as the roles, responsibilities, and caregiving obligations are concerned, women who adopt a child aged 3 months or above are similarly situated to women who adopt a child below the age of 3 months,” the Court said, according to Bar&Bench.

The court has also directed the Central government to introduce a provision recognising paternity leave as a social security benefit.

The ruling came during the hearing of a petition which was filed in 2021. It originally challenged Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, as amended by the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 – which grants maternity leave of 12 weeks to a mother whose adopted child is below three months of age.

In November 2024, the court also issued a notice to the government in response to a petition by an adoptive mother.

(With agency inputs)