Denial Of Maternity Benefits To Mothers Adopting Children Aged Less Than 3 Months Challenged In Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today has issued notice in a public interest litigation challenging the constitutionality of section 5 of the Maternity Benefit 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 three months. "Even strictly adhering to JJ Act, the process of adoption, which requires that any orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child be declared "legally free for adoption" by the Child Welfare Committee under the JJ Act, followed by the procedure of adoption, cannot be completed in a meagre span of three months, referred to in Section 5 of the Maternity Benefit Act. It has also been contended that absence of provision for any maternity leave at all for a mother adopting an orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child above the age of three months invariable disentitles/disallows most women/mothers from being able to enjoy the statutory maternity benefits of three months that Maternity Benefit Act 2017) intents to grant to adopting mothers. Section 5 apart from being discriminatory and arbitrary towards the adoptive mothers, also arbitrarily discriminates against orphaned, abandoned or surrendered children above the age of three months, which is completely incompatible to the object of the Maternity Benefit Act as well as the JJ Act," petition also stated.