NEW DELHI: Observing that the arrival of a child in a family - whether by birth, adoption or surrogacy - involves time, attention and rearing responsibilities to ensure their well-being, Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that maternity leave was the right of all women, irrespective of whether they gave birth biologically or had a child through surrogacy or adoption.

It struck down a provision mandating that maternity leave could not be granted in case of adoption of a child above three months of age.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said maternity benefit was associated not just with the biological process of childbirth but also took into account a holistic understanding of attainment of motherhood and consequent fulfillment of the role. It held that the purpose of maternity protection did not vary with the manner in which the child was brought into the life of the beneficiary mother and parenthood was not confined to the biological act of giving birth.

Finding a flaw in Section 60(4) of Code on Social Security, which says only women adopting children younger than three months are entitled to maternity benefit for a period of 12 weeks, the court said the approach adopted by the legislature while enacting the impugned provision did not reflect real-world requirements.It said women who adopt a child aged three months or above are similarly placed as women who adopt a child below the age of three months, and the present provision was discriminatory.