Restoring rights: on the Hamsaanandini Nanduri vs Union Of India case

Adoptive mothers have the same rights (अधिकार) as biological (जैविक) mothers

Courts with a tinge (आभास, हल्की झलक) of judicial activism (न्यायिक सक्रियता) have expansively (व्यापक रूप से, विस्तृत रूप में) interpreted (व्याख्या करना, अर्थ निकालना) the Constitution (भारत का संविधान) to secure (सुनिश्चित करना) fresh rights for citizens, over the years. In the latest instance, a view that encompasses (शामिल करना, समाहित करना) evolving (विकसित होता हुआ, परिवर्तित होता हुआ) social systems, and a keen feminist (नारीवादी) perspective (दृष्टिकोण), taken by the highest court in the land, has recognised (to formally and legally acknowledge, validate, certify, admit) maternity leave for working women as a basic human right (an inherent, inalienable entitlement that inherently belongs to every individual to ensure dignity, equality, and protection against state or structural overreach; fundamental right, civil liberty, basic entitlement). The Court ruled that adoptive mothers (दत्तक माता) are entitled (authorize, empower, grant (the right)) to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave (a statutorily mandated period of paid absence from employment granted to mothers to facilitate childbearing, adoption, and early caregiving), regardless of the child’s age at the time of (during, exactly when, on the occasion of) adoption, thus (therefore, consequently, hence, accordingly) striking down a previous restriction allowing maternity leave only for women who had applied for adopting children less than three months of age. The judgment, delivered by Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, came in response to petitioner (applicant, claimant, appellant, litigant) Hamsaanandini Nanduri challenging (to formally contest or legally dispute the constitutional validity and structural fairness of a statutory clause; dispute, contest, object to, question) this provision (clause, stipulation, condition, requirement) in the Maternity Benefit Act, recently replaced (supersede, substitute, supplant, override) by the Code on Social Security. She also pointed out that the legal process of adoption itself took over three months to be completed. The judges observed (remark, note, state, opine) that an adoptive mother had the same rights and obligations (a profound legal, moral, or structural duty and responsibility inherently owed by a parent to ensure a child’s holistic welfare; duty, responsibility, commitment, liability) towards the child as a biological mother. Reading (interpret, construe, decipher, understand) adoption as an ‘expression of reproductive autonomy’ (the fundamental human right and capacity of an individual to make independent, uncoerced choices regarding their own body, family planning, and motherhood; reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, reproductive self-determination), the Court said that the emotional bond (psychological attachment, affective connection, emotional tie) with the child has to be consciously nurtured (to actively foster, support, and systematically cultivate the emotional, psychological, and physical development of a child; cultivate, foster, care for, rear) through time, presence (physical availability, involvement, proximity) and sustained caregiving. “Adoption is an equally valid pathway for the creation of a family. It is not biology that constitutes (make up, form, comprise, establish) a family of a mother, father, and children, rather (instead, more precisely, on the contrary, alternately), it is the shared meaning, responsibility, and emotional bonds that sustain (uphold, maintain, preserve, support) such a relationship,” it explained. Maternity benefit is extended (grant, offer, provide) to working women during the early phase of motherhood (the legally protected and socially vital condition of being a female parent, characterized by inherent caregiving responsibilities and the creation of emotional bonds; maternity, parenthood, maternal state) to support them financially and provide economic security (financial stability, economic independence, financial protection) without them having to depend on family members. This equally applies to biological and adoptive mothers. Further, the judges urged the government to legally recognise (a statutorily mandated period of paid absence from employment granted to mothers to facilitate childbearing, adoption, and early caregiving) paternity leave as a social security (a comprehensive system of state-sponsored welfare programs strategically designed to provide financial, medical, and structural protection to citizens against socio-economic risks, including maternity and unemployment; social welfare, state protection, public assistance) benefit, noting that parenthood (the encompassing state and legal identity of being a parent, which inherently involves shared caregiving responsibilities rather than isolated duties; parenting, child-rearing, mothering/fathering) is not a solitary (single, individual, isolated, lone) function performed by one parent alone.

The judges have, with one judgment, conferred (to formally and legally grant, bestow, accord, impart) equal rights to adoptive parents, and restored (पुनर्स्थापित करना) child rearing (the comprehensive, long-term developmental process of nurturing, educating, and physically bringing up a child; raising, upbringing, parenting, nurturing) to a gender-neutral parenting paradigm (the general theoretical, legal, and structural model that dictates how the shared responsibilities of raising children are socially conceptualized and legally supported; parenting model, caregiving framework, familial standard). The patriarchal enabling system (institutionalized patriarchy, male-centric framework, chauvinistic structure, traditionalist system) has feminised (to systematically force an activity, responsibility, or profession to become disproportionately associated with, or exclusively performed by, women; make female-centric, genderize, associate with women) raising children, leading to it being undervalued (underappreciated, underrated, minimized, marginalized) or inadequately (insufficiently, poorly, deficiently, meagerly) compensated, if it ever is. Nobel winner Claudia Goldin’s work has identified that the gender pay gap (gender wage disparity, wage gap, income inequality) often emerges with the birth of a first child. The top court has given India an opportunity to set right (rectify, correct, resolve, remedy) the inadequate laws governing maternity leave in adoption, and to a large extent (substantially, significantly, primarily, largely), the gender imbalance (the systemic, disproportionate, and inequitable distribution of power, opportunities, roles, or compensation between men and women within a socio-economic framework; gender disparity, gender inequality) in society. It is the duty now of the state (the government, the administration, the regime, the public authority) to make sure that this progressive (demonstrating an active, forward-looking commitment to socio-economic reform, structural equality, and the advancement of modern, egalitarian welfare policies; liberal, reformist, forward-looking, enlightened) judgment finds effective implementation (execution, application, enforcement, realization) in every corner of the country.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.restore (verb)

Hindi Meaning - पुनर्स्थापित करना
English Meaning - to legally reinstate or return a fundamental entitlement or condition to its rightful state; reinstate, re-establish, bring back.

2.right (noun)

Hindi Meaning - अधिकार
English Meaning - a legal entitlement guaranteed by the Constitution or law; entitlement, prerogative, privilege, claim.

3.perspective (noun)

Hindi Meaning - दृष्टिकोण
English Meaning - viewpoint, standpoint, angle, point of view, outlook.

4.Adoptive mother (noun)

Hindi Meaning - दत्तक माता
English Meaning - a woman who has legally assumed the permanent maternal rights and responsibilities for a child, holding identical legal standing and obligations as a biological parent; legal mother, fostering mother.

5.biological (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - जैविक
English Meaning - related genetically or by blood rather than through legal adoption; genetic, consanguineous, blood-related.

6.tinge (noun)

Hindi Meaning - आभास, हल्की झलक
English Meaning - trace, hint, touch, suggestion.

7.judicial activism (noun)

Hindi Meaning - न्यायिक सक्रियता
English Meaning - judicial interventionism, proactive adjudication.

8.activism (noun)

Hindi Meaning - सक्रियता, आंदोलनकारी गतिविधि
English Meaning - the doctrine or practice of taking direct, vigorous action to achieve a specific social, political, or legal result; advocacy, involvement, campaigning, interventionism.

9.expansively (adverb)

Hindi Meaning - व्यापक रूप से, विस्तृत रूप में
English Meaning - broadly, comprehensively, extensively, widely.

10.interpret (verb)

Hindi Meaning - व्याख्या करना, अर्थ निकालना
English Meaning - to systematically elucidate, construe, or determine the underlying constitutional meaning of a law or legal provision; construe, explain, elucidate, decode.

11.the Constitution (of India) (noun)

Hindi Meaning - भारत का संविधान
English Meaning - the supreme and foundational legal framework of India that delineates the structure, powers, and duties of government institutions and enshrines the fundamental rights and directive principles for its citizens.

12.secure (verb)

Hindi Meaning - सुनिश्चित करना
English Meaning - guarantee, safeguard, ensure, obtain.

13.encompass (verb)

Hindi Meaning - शामिल करना, समाहित करना
English Meaning - include, incorporate, embrace, cover.

14.evolving (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - विकसित होता हुआ, परिवर्तित होता हुआ
English Meaning - developing, progressing, advancing, transforming.

15.feminist (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - नारीवादी
English Meaning - advocating for the systemic social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, particularly focusing on dismantling patriarchal disadvantages; egalitarian, pro-women, gender-egalitarian.

16.adoptive (adjective)

English Meaning - nonbiological, acquired by adoption, fostering.

17.Hamsaanandini Nanduri vs Union Of India case (noun)

English Meaning - a landmark 2026 Supreme Court of India judgment that struck down the three-month age limit for maternity leave for adoptive mothers under the Code on Social Security, establishing that all adoptive mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave irrespective of the child’s age, thus recognizing maternity protection as a fundamental human right.

18.biological mother (noun)

English Meaning - the female parent who conceives and gives birth to a child, sharing a direct genetic relationship; birth mother, genetic mother.

19.over the years (phrase)

English Meaning - occurring cumulatively or continuously throughout a prolonged historical period; historically, systematically over time, gradually.

20.keen (adjective)

English Meaning - sharp, astute, perceptive, penetrating.

21.highest court in the land (phrase)

English Meaning - the ultimate judicial authority and apex appellate body within a nation’s legal hierarchy, referring specifically to the Supreme Court of India; apex court.

22.recognise (verb)

English Meaning - to formally and legally acknowledge, validate, certify, admit.

23.maternity leave (noun)

English Meaning - a statutorily mandated period of paid absence from employment granted to mothers to facilitate childbearing, adoption, and early caregiving.

24.maternity (noun)

English Meaning - the condition, legal status, and socially significant period of being a mother, encompassing pregnancy, childbirth, or adoption, along with immediate caregiving duties; motherhood, state of being a mother.

25.human right (noun)

English Meaning - an inherent, inalienable entitlement that inherently belongs to every individual to ensure dignity, equality, and protection against state or structural overreach; fundamental right, civil liberty, basic entitlement.

26.entitle (verb)

English Meaning - authorize, empower, grant (the right).

27.regardless of (phrase)

English Meaning - irrespective of, notwithstanding, unhindered by, ignoring.

28.at the time of (phrase)

English Meaning - during, exactly when, on the occasion of.

29.adoption (noun)

English Meaning - the definitive legal mechanism through which an individual or couple permanently acquires the comprehensive parenting rights, obligations, and relationship with a non-biological child; legal fostering, legal assumption of parenthood.

30.thus (adverb)

English Meaning - therefore, consequently, hence, accordingly.

31.strike down (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - invalidate, quash, annul, nullify.

32.petitioner (noun)

English Meaning - applicant, claimant, appellant, litigant.

33.challenge (verb)

English Meaning - to formally contest or legally dispute the constitutional validity and structural fairness of a statutory clause; dispute, contest, object to, question.

34.provision (noun)

English Meaning - clause, stipulation, condition, requirement.

35.The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (noun)

English Meaning - it is a central Indian legislation enacted to regulate the employment of women in specific establishments for certain periods before and after childbirth, ensuring the statutory provision of paid maternity leave, wage protection, and related maternal welfare benefits.

36.replace (verb)

English Meaning - supersede, substitute, supplant, override.

37.The Code on Social Security, 2020 (noun)

English Meaning - it is a comprehensive Indian legislative framework that consolidates and amalgamates nine central labor laws to extend universal, standardized social security benefits—such as provident fund, healthcare, and maternity leave—to all workers in the organized, unorganized, and gig sectors.

38.point out (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - highlight, indicate, underscore, emphasize.

39.observe (verb)

English Meaning - remark, note, state, opine.

40.obligation (noun)

English Meaning - a profound legal, moral, or structural duty and responsibility inherently owed by a parent to ensure a child’s holistic welfare; duty, responsibility, commitment, liability.

41.read (verb)

English Meaning - interpret, construe, decipher, understand.

42.reproductive autonomy (noun)

English Meaning - the fundamental human right and capacity of an individual to make independent, uncoerced choices regarding their own body, family planning, and motherhood; reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, reproductive self-determination.

43.reproductive (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to the biological, legal, or social processes of bearing children and forming a family; procreative, generative, genetic, familial.

44.autonomy (noun)

English Meaning - independence, self-determination, freedom, self-governance.

45.emotional bond (noun)

English Meaning - psychological attachment, affective connection, emotional tie.

46.nurture (verb)

English Meaning - to actively foster, support, and systematically cultivate the emotional, psychological, and physical development of a child; cultivate, foster, care for, rear.

47.presence (noun)

English Meaning - physical availability, involvement, proximity.

48.sustained (adjective)

English Meaning - continuous, prolonged, consistent, unbroken.

49.caregiving (noun)

English Meaning - the active, continuous provision of comprehensive physical, emotional, and structural support necessary for a child’s upbringing; nurturing, care provision, parenting, looking after.

50.constitute (verb)

English Meaning - make up, form, comprise, establish.

51.rather (adverb)

English Meaning - instead, more precisely, on the contrary, alternately.

52.sustain (verb)

English Meaning - uphold, maintain, preserve, support.

53.extend (verb)

English Meaning - grant, offer, provide.

54.motherhood (noun)

English Meaning - the legally protected and socially vital condition of being a female parent, characterized by inherent caregiving responsibilities and the creation of emotional bonds; maternity, parenthood, maternal state.

55.economic security (noun)

English Meaning - financial stability, economic independence, financial protection.

56.social security (noun)

English Meaning - a comprehensive system of state-sponsored welfare programs strategically designed to provide financial, medical, and structural protection to citizens against socio-economic risks, including maternity and unemployment; social welfare, state protection, public assistance.

57.parenthood (noun)

English Meaning - the encompassing state and legal identity of being a parent, which inherently involves shared caregiving responsibilities rather than isolated duties; parenting, child-rearing, mothering/fathering.

58.solitary (adjective)

English Meaning - single, individual, isolated, lone.

59.confer (verb)

English Meaning - to formally and legally grant, bestow, accord, impart.

60.rearing (noun)

English Meaning - the comprehensive, long-term developmental process of nurturing, educating, and physically bringing up a child; raising, upbringing, parenting, nurturing.

61.child rearing (noun)

English Meaning - raising children, child upbringing, parenting, child care.

62.gender-neutral (adjective)

English Meaning - structurally egalitarian (equitable) and completely devoid of traditional gender biases or role assumptions, applying equally to individuals irrespective of their sex; inclusive, ungendered, non-discriminatory, egalitarian.

63.parenting paradigm (noun)

English Meaning - the general theoretical, legal, and structural model that dictates how the shared responsibilities of raising children are socially conceptualized and legally supported; parenting model, caregiving framework, familial standard.

64.paradigm (noun)

English Meaning - model, framework, pattern, standard.

65.patriarchal (adjective)

English Meaning - characterizing a socio-cultural or structural system wherein men disproportionately hold power, and traditional, inequitable gender roles are systematically enforced; male-dominated, male-centric, traditionalist, chauvinistic.

66.patriarchal enabling system (noun)

English Meaning - institutionalized patriarchy, male-centric framework, chauvinistic structure, traditionalist system.

67.feminise (verb)

English Meaning - to systematically force an activity, responsibility, or profession to become disproportionately associated with, or exclusively performed by, women; make female-centric, genderize, associate with women.

68.raise (verb)

English Meaning - rear, bring up, nurture, care for.

69.lead to (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - result in, cause, bring about, give rise to, engender.

70.undervalued (adjective)

English Meaning - underappreciated, underrated, minimized, marginalized.

71.inadequately (adverb)

English Meaning - insufficiently, poorly, deficiently, meagerly.

72.compensated (adjective)

English Meaning - structurally provided with appropriate financial remuneration, wages, or equitable economic reward in exchange for critical labor or services; remunerated, paid, reimbursed, rewarded.

73.if it ever is (phrase)

English Meaning - assuming it happens at all, rarely if at all, highly unlikely.

74.Claudia Goldin (proper noun)

English Meaning - Claudia Goldin is an eminent American economic historian and labor economist at Harvard University who won the 2023 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her pioneering, comprehensive research uncovering the historical drivers of women’s labor market outcomes and the structural causes of the gender pay gap.

75.gender pay gap (noun)

English Meaning - gender wage disparity, wage gap, income inequality.

76.set right (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - rectify, correct, resolve, remedy.

77.to a large extent (phrase)

English Meaning - substantially, significantly, primarily, largely.

78.gender imbalance (noun)

English Meaning - the systemic, disproportionate, and inequitable distribution of power, opportunities, roles, or compensation between men and women within a socio-economic framework; gender disparity, gender inequality.

79.imbalance (noun)

English Meaning - disparity, inequality, disproportion, asymmetry.

80.the state (noun)

English Meaning - the government, the administration, the regime, the public authority.

81.progressive (adjective)

English Meaning - demonstrating an active, forward-looking commitment to socio-economic reform, structural equality, and the advancement of modern, egalitarian welfare policies; liberal, reformist, forward-looking, enlightened.

82.implementation (noun)

English Meaning - execution, application, enforcement, realization.