Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on Maternity leave given only if adopted kid is below 3 months

Hamsaanandini Nanduri challenged the Constitutional validity of section 54 of the maternity benefit act 1961, a person has to be an adoptive parent to a child below three months to get the benefit of 12 weeks maternity leave.

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Centre on a PIL challenging a provision of the Maternity Benefit Act which says that adoptive mothers will be applicable for maternity leave only if they adopt children who are below 3 months old.

There is no provision for maternity leave at all for a mother adopting an orphaned or surrendered child above the age of three months. The plea raised an objection to the period of maternity leave given to adoptive mothers as compared to biological mothers.