Parmod KumarNew Delhi, March 17 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a provision of the Social Security Code, 2020 that limited maternity benefits for adoptive mothers to cases where the adopted child was below three months of age, holding the restriction to be arbitrary and violative of the right to equality under Article 14.
The Court found that adoptive mothers, irrespective of the age of the child - below three months or above three months - perform similar roles and responsibilities, and that the needs of an adopted child are no different from those of a biological child.
A Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan observed that the law created an artificial classification between adoptive mothers based solely on the age...