The Supreme Court on Tuesday held as unconstitutional a provision in the central law that disallows “maternity leave” to adoptive mothers if the age of the child is over three months. The court also asked the Centre to consider evolving a “paternity leave” policy forall fathers. Now, only those women whose adopted child is less than three months old areentitled to maternity leave of 12 weeks. “At present, Sections 43A and 43AA of the CCS (Leave) Rules, respectively, grant a male government servant 15 days of paternity leave for the birth of the child or for adoption. In light of the aforesaid discussion on the need of paternity leave, we urge the Union to come up with a provision recognising paternity leave as a social security benefit.

Source: The Telegraph March 17, 2026 23:23 UTC