Alka Verma-
Published On: October 1, 2021 at 17:59 IST
On Friday, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to Centre regarding a provision of Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
A Bench comprising Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari asked for the response of Central Government regarding the plea which challenges a provision and stated it as “discriminatory and arbitrary”.
Hamsaanandini Nanduri, who filed the Petition challenged the Constitutional Validity of Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
Section 5(4) of the Act states that a person who has adopted a child of below 3 months is only qualified to have the benefit of 12 weeks maternity leave.
The Petition stated that there is no as such provision in the Act which talks about the maternity leave of such mothers who had adopted an orphaned, abandoned or surrendered child above the age of three months.
Adding to this, the Plea stated that such difference will lead to parents adopting more newborn babies as compared to older ones.
Further the Petition stated that the same section discriminates not only the mothers but also the children who are adopted.
The Petition also talked about the discrimination happening between the biological and adoptive mothers as a biological mother get a maternity leave of 26 weeks but an adoptive mother gets only 12 weeks as leave period.
Further stating the delay caused by adoption procedures, the plea emphasized on the Adoption Regulations which takes a minimum time period of 2 months to declare a child “legally free for adoption”.
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