Hello all, 

Our PIL came up for hearing before the Supreme Court (Hon’ble Justice Pardiwala and Hon’ble Justice Mahadevan) today. The counsel appearing for the Union of India was also present. 

The bench heard the crux of the petition and requested the opposing counsel to put forth the purpose of the maternity benefit and the rationale behind the 3 month restriction. The counsel submitted that there was a “huge” difference between a biological mother and an adoptive mother and we couldn’t expect to be treated alike. When the Bench further prodded on what the idea behind restricting the age of the child to 3 months was, there was no satisfactory explanation. The Bench has now asked the Union to file a more detailed response addressing these particularly in 3 weeks. We then get a week to file a rejoinder (i e our response). The matter is likely to be heard for final disposal on December 17, 2024.

As a result of today’s proceedings, a small course correction we will do is as follows. If I may remind you all, we went with 2 main grouses:

(i) why is maternity benefit limited to mothers who adopt children less than 3 months old, and 

(ii) why is it that adoptive mothers get only 12 weeks of maternity leave while biological mothers get 26 weeks? This legal discrimination is a ripe ground for social bias against normalising adoption.

While the Court readily seemed to appreciate our point on (i), the Court clearly clarified that they wouldn’t interfere with (ii) since that’s a matter of policy and therefore falls within the ambit of the legislature only and not the judiciary. While this pains me, in the interest of not jeopardising our PIL in its entirety, we will focus more of our energies on leg (i) going forward. We will of course bring up (ii) before the Court wherever an opportunity presents itself. We will chalk out a different path to bring this out before the lawmakers if need be.

Here are links to a few media articles that cover today’s hearing.

1. India Today
2. Bar and Bench
3. Times Now

Before I sign off, thank you all again for standing with me throughout this journey. Each one of your thoughts, prayers and good wishes make a difference - please keep them on. I hope to come back here with another update soon.