SC Notice to Centre on PIL Challenging 'Arbitrary, Discriminatory' Maternity Benefit to Adoptive Mothers
SC Notice to Centre on PIL Challenging 'Arbitrary, Discriminatory' Maternity Benefit to Adoptive Mothers
The PIL stated that 12 weeks of maternity benefit to adoptive mothers under the Maternity Benefit Act is a "mere lip service".

The Supreme Court Friday sought response from the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of a provision of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which states that a woman will be eligible for maternity leave who legally adopts a child below the age of three months.

A bench of Justices SA Nazeer and Krishna Murari issued notices to the ministry of law and justice, ministry of women & child development while seeking their responses on the PIL, which said Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, was discriminatory and arbitrary.

A woman who legally adopts a child below the age of three months or a commissioning mother shall be entitled to maternity benefit for a period of twelve weeks from the date the child is handed over to the adopting mother or the commissioning mother, as the case may be. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Karnataka resident Hamsaanandini Nanduri challenging the constitutional validity of this provision in the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.

“Section 5(4) 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 Juvenile Justice Act,” the plea said.

The petition stated that the purported 12 weeks of maternity benefit to adoptive mothers is not only a “mere lip service but when juxtaposed with the maternity benefit of 26 weeks provided to biological mothers, fails to stand even the basic scrutiny of Part III of the Constitution which is wedded to the concept of non-arbitrariness.”

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.

What's your reaction?

Comments

https://terka.info/assets/images/user-avatar-s.jpg

0 comment

Write the first comment for this!