Supreme Court to examine legality of maternity leave cap for adoptive mothers under Social Security
New Delhi: More than 11 months after reserving its verdict, the Supreme Court has decided to examine the constitutional validity of a provision in the Code on Social Security, 2020, that restricts maternity leave for adoptive mothers to cases where the adopted child is below three months of age.
A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan has permitted Karnataka-based lawyer Hamsaanandini Nanduri to amend her pending petition to directly challenge Section 60(4) of the 2020 Code. The provision, which came into force last month, mirrors an earlier clause in the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, despite that law now standing repealed.
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The court noted that although it had reserved judgment in Nanduri’s petition on January 29, 2025, the Union government proceeded to notify the Social Security Code on November 21, 2025, retaining the very restriction under challenge, as reported by Hindustan times. Observing that Section 60(4) of the new Code is pari materia with Section 5(4) of the 1961 Act, the bench allowed the amendment and said the matter would be listed for pronouncement of judgment after the revised plea is placed on record.
Under Section 60(4), an adoptive mother is entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave only if the adopted child is under three months old. The law does not provide any maternity leave for adoptions involving older children, including those who are orphaned, abandoned or surrendered.
In her petition, which was originally filed in 2021, Nanduri has argued that the provision is arbitrary and discriminatory. She also mentioned that it was violating Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution. She has contended that the law creates unreasonable distinctions between biological and adoptive mothers, between different categories of adoptive mothers, and even among adopted children themselves.
Nanduri, who became an adoptive mother in 2017, adopted two siblings through the Central Adoption Resource Authority, a four-and-a-half-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother, after authorities made it clear that the children could not be separated. When she applied for maternity leave, her employer informed her that she was eligible for only six weeks’ leave per child, as neither met the statutory age requirement of three months.
Describing the provision as offering only “lip service” to adoptive parents, Nanduri has maintained that the restriction fails to recognise the emotional, physical and caregiving demands involved in adopting older children, many of whom come from vulnerable backgrounds.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
