New Delhi: The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on Friday, on a Public Interest Litigation filed, regarding the leave provision on maternity benefit, for adoptive mothers. The PIL challenged a provision of the Maternity Benefit Act, which says that adoptive mothers will be eligible for maternity leave, only if they adopt children who are less than 3-months-old.
The plea submitted by Hamsaanandini Nanduri, challenged the Constitutional validity of Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, as per which, a person has to be an adoptive parent to a child below three months to avail the benefit of 12 weeks maternity leave. The bench of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari, sought response from the Central government on the petition, which claimed the provision to be ‘discriminatory and arbitrary’ towards the adoptive mothers. It further added that section 5(4) therefore discriminates not only between biological and adoptive mothers but also between children who are adopted.
The plea said that, currently, there is no provision for maternity leave at all for a mother adopting an orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child above the age of three months. Such a distinction will lead to parents preferring to adopt new-born children as against older children. It added that the provision is in conflict with the letter and spirit of Juvenile Justice Act, because it does not take into consideration the procedure of adoption under the JJ Act and the regulations framed under that Act, the Adoption Regulations.
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