New Delhi, Nov 12 (Agency) The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to justify restricting maternity benefits to adoptive mothers of children under three months, questioning the policy’s fairness and alignment with adoption processes. A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal questioned the rationale behind this restriction and gave the Centre four weeks to submit an affidavit explaining its position on the matter. Justice Pardiwala asked the Government Counsel, “What is the idea of saying that a child has to be 3 months or less?
What is the object of having a provision to grant maternity leave? to take care of the child. Whether it is biological or any kind of mother? Counsel for Union said, “ No Milords, there is a huge difference between biological mother and other kinds of upbringing.” The laws currently restrict benefits to the adoption of infants under 3 months. Petitioner claims current law discriminates against adoptive mothers. The Top Court was hearing a PIL challenging the constitutionality of Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 which entitles maternity period benefits for a period of 12 weeks to only those mothers who are adopting a child below the age of 3 months. The Bench gave the Centre 4 weeks to respond to the rationale behind such a directive.