Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
Section 2: Application of Act
The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Social Security, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.
[(1) It applies, in the first instance,—
(a) to every establishment being a factory, mine or plantation including any such establishment belonging to Government and to every establishment wherein persons are employed for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatic and other performances;
(b) to every shop or establishment within the meaning of any law for the time being in force in relation to shops and establishments in a State, in which ten or more persons are employed, or were employed, on any day of the preceding twelve months:]
Provided that the State Government may, with the approval of the Central Government, after giving not less than two months’ notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply also to any other establishment or class of establishments, industrial, commercial, agricultural or otherwise.
(2) [Save as otherwise provided in [sections 5A and 5B], nothing contained in this Act] shall apply to any factory or other establishment to which the provisions of the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 (34 of 1948), apply for the time being.
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.