New Delhi, May 10 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that "we have gone beyond motherhood and into parenthood and there are single parents too", adding that Indian laws permit an individual to adopt a child irrespective of one's marital status.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), submitted before a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that the entire architecture of the laws is to protect the interest and the welfare of children who are naturally born to heterosexual persons.
Bhati said the state is justified in treating heterosexual and homosexuals differently and stressed that the concept of gender may be "fluid" but not mother and motherhood.
The bench, also comprising Justices S.K. Kaul, S. Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli, and P.S. Narasimha, observed: "There are situations where there is just one father... We have gone beyond motherhood and gone into parenthood. There are single parents too..."