The Supreme Court of the country has made an important comment on maternity leave related to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. In fact, the Supreme Court has asked the Central Government to explain the logic behind the provision of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 that why only women who adopt a child less than three months old are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave. It should be known that the constitutional validity of this provision has been challenged in the petition.

Know the comment of Supreme Court

A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mittal in the Supreme Court said that prima facie the case is that this provision is a social welfare law and there was no reason to limit the age of the child to three months. In other words, if a woman adopts a child older than three months, she will not be entitled to any such maternity leave benefit under the Amendment Act. The bench said in its order of November 12 that the Center has filed its reply justifying the age of three months, but during the hearing many issues have emerged which need consideration. Now in this situation, the Central Government should file further reply in three weeks on the issues under discussion.

When will the next hearing be held in the case

The bench said that a copy of the reply to be filed should be given to the counsel for the petitioner in advance and the rejoinder, if any, should be filed within a week thereafter. The final hearing of the case will be held on December 17. In October 2021, the apex court had sought the response of the Central Government on the petition which claimed that Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 is discriminatory and arbitrary.