Three-Month Age Cap on Adoptive Maternity Benefit Struck Down

The Supreme Court has held that the three-month age cap on an adopted child in Section 60(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 is unconstitutional, and has read the provision down so that every adoptive mother becomes entitled to twelve weeks of maternity benefit, regardless of when the child is handed over.

Background

The petitioner, Hamsaanandini Nanduri, an adoptive mother of two, invoked Article 32 originally challenging Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. After the Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025 and consolidated maternity law, the Court permitted her to amend the petition to challenge the pari materia provision in Section 60(4) of the 2020 Code.

The impugned sub-section restricted maternity benefit to adoptive mothers who legally adopted a child below the age of three months, and to commissioning mothers. The challenge was confined to the position of adoptive mothers.

Issues

Whether the three-month age cap on the adopted child for the adoptive mother to claim maternity benefit was a permissible classification under Article 14, and whether it violated Article 21 read with the principle of the best interest of the child.

Holding

Justice J.B. Pardiwala, writing for the Bench with Justice R. Mahadevan, held that the age limit creates an artificial and arbitrary classification between adoptive mothers on either side of the three-month line, with no rational nexus to the object of providing social security to mothers and children at the point of bonding. The Court found the restriction violative of Article 14 and of the right to a dignified life of adoptive parents and the adopted child under Article 21.

The Court also recorded that the provision was practically unworkable, since by the time a child is declared legally free for adoption under the prevailing process, the child is unlikely to be under three months old. The restriction therefore made the benefit illusory.

Reading down

Instead of striking the provision down in entirety, the Court read Section 60(4) of the 2020 Code as: a woman who legally adopts a child 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 her.

Paternity leave

The Bench also urged the Union to enact a provision recognising paternity leave as a statutory social security benefit, with duration calibrated to the needs of both the parent and the child. While this part is in the nature of a recommendation, it sets a clear direction for future labour and social security reform.

Practical takeaway

Employers and HR teams must now extend twelve weeks of maternity benefit to every adoptive mother on production of valid adoption documents, without applying any age cut-off on the adopted child.