‘Age limit renders provision illusory’: What Supreme Court said in landmark judgment striking down law limiting maternity leave to adoption of children under 3 months

Observing that adoption falls within the ambit of reproductive autonomy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a law that restricted maternity leave to women who adopt children below three months of age. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan held that an adoptive mother should be entitled to maternity leave of 12 weeks, irrespective of the age of the adopted child. "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 bench said. The court read down the provision to state, "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 as quoted by LiveLaw.

The provision earlier held that this benefit is available only to a woman who legally adopts a child "below the age of three months". The bench held that the distinction drawn by Section 60(4) of the Social Security Code has no rational nexus with the objective of the Social Security Code, 2020. It noted that the need for maternal care for an adopted child does not vary and that the age-based distinction is not a rational classification.

"The age limit renders the provision illusory and devoid of practical application," Justice Pardiwala stated in the judgment, holding the provision as violating Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, according to LiveLaw. The court also asked the Centre to come out with a provision recognising paternity leave as a social security benefit, adding that the duration of such leave must be determined in a manner that is responsive to the needs of both parents. The judgment came on a plea filed by advocate Hamsaanandini Nanduri challenging Section 60(4) of the Social Security Code that allows 12 weeks of maternity leave only if an adoptive mother adopts a child below three months of age. The petition was originally filed in 2021 challenging 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 an adoptive mother only if the child adopted is below three months of age. On November 12, 2024, the court issued notice to the Union government on a PIL filed by an adoptive mother who has adopted two children since 2017.