It repealed the provision which stated that maternity leave could not be granted in case of adoption of a child above three months of age.A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said that maternity benefit is not only linked to the biological process of birth of a child, but also takes into account the holistic understanding of attainment of motherhood and fulfillment of the role as a result of it. It held that the purpose of maternity protection does not vary from the way the beneficiary mother brings a child into her life and that parenthood is not limited to the biological act of giving birth.Finding fault with Section 60(4) of the Social Security Code, which states that only women adopting children below three months of age are entitled to maternity benefit for a period of 12 weeks, the court said that the approach adopted by the legislature while enacting the impugned provision does not reflect the real world requirements.It said that women who adopt a child of three months of age or more are treated at par with women who adopt a child of less than three months of age and the present provision is discriminatory.