'No Rationale' : Supreme Court Questions Provision Denying Maternity Leave If Adopted Child Is Above 3 Months; Reserves Judgment

The Supreme Court today(January 29) reserved judgment in a writ petition challenging Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961(as amended in 2017) as per which a woman who adopts a child is entitled to maternity benefit only if the adopted child is aged less than three months.A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan was hearing the challenge to the specific provision relating to an adoptive mother, which was inserted in 2017. The Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the adoption regime is governed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. She argued that the problem with Section 5(4) is that if an adoptive mother adopted a child above the age of 3 months, she would not be entitled to maternity benefits of 12 weeks. Justice Pardiwala questioned how one draws the line as to at what age of the child an adoptive mother should be allowed this benefit. He said: "It says below the age of three months, so where do we draw the line?. The Advocate responded: "Till 18 years. Under the Act itself, a child is defined as 18 years of age."Initially, the Court stated that some object must be behind this provision. However, when the Union's counsel began his arguments, the Court questioned if there was any "nexus" with the objective which the law sought to achieve. The Counsel submitted that the legislature gives 18 weeks of maternity benefit to the biological mother to take care of the child and recover post-delivery. However, for an adoptive mother, only 12 weeks is given because the component of recovery is missing. However, the Court clarified that the period of maternity is not in question. The issue is that the maternity benefit is being curtailed based on the age of the child.Justice Pardiwala said: "Is there any nexus with the object sought to be achieved? We are testing the validity of sub-section 4 on the avail of reasonableness, Article 14...You are curtailing the age. We are not concerned how many days' leave you are going to sanction. What is the rationale in saying that if a woman, not a biological mother, who legally adopts a child below the age of 3 months..Now, take a case. There is a couple and they don't have child of their own. They decide to adopt the child and they get one very good baby who is 3 years, 3 months and 15 days old. How do you expect that woman, who has adopted, to take care of that particular adopted child? It is only when the adopted baby is less than 3 months she is entitled to 12 weeks. We don't find any rationale behind it."Case Details: HAMSAANANDINI NANDURI Vs UNION OF INDIA| W.P.(C) No. 960/2021 Click Here To Read/Download Order

'No Rationale' : Supreme Court Questions Provision Denying Maternity Leave If Adopted Child Is Above 3 Months; Reserves Judgment

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

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