In a significant development, the Supreme Court this week directed new applicants seeking permission to undergo surrogacy to approach the jurisdictional high courts. The Court clarified that the pendency of the petitions challenging the provisions of the surrogacy law in the Supreme Court will not bar the High Courts from entertaining applications filed by individuals seeking permission to undergo surrogacy. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih passed this direction, noting that a barrage of applications has been pouring in from all across the country for permission to opt for surrogacy despite statutory restraints. The applications were filed after the Supreme Court in October 2023 passed an interim order granting permission for a woman diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) Syndrome to pursue surrogacy utilising a donor egg, staying the implementation of a recent amendment to the Surrogacy Rules, which had barred the use of donor eggs for gestational […]

सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने सरोगेसी के विवादित संशोधन पर रोक लगाते हुए फैसला सुनाया कि महिला को दुर्लभ चिकित्सकीय स्थिति में सरोगेसी से मां बनने से नहीं रोक सकते। यह उनका हक है। इसके बाद राजस्थान में सरोगेसी से मां बनने का सपना देख रहीं 200 महिलाओं के लिए उम्मीद की नई किरण जागी है। Read More

SC indicates it might stay a provision of Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022, that bars intending parents from accepting donor eggs to bear a surrogate child. New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday stayed a contentious provision of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022, for seven couples, allowing them to accept donor eggs to bear a surrogate child.A two-judge bench led by Justice B.V. Nagarathna made the exception for the couples after it received medical reports in each case confirming that the women were unable to produce their own eggs due to underlying medical conditions. The order brought relief to the couples as they had initiated the steps for surrogacy, but could not complete it due to a sudden amendment brought about in the rules in March last year. These couples had opted for surrogacy based on their respective doctor’s medical advice. The amendment in the surrogacy rules, notified on 14 March 2023,[…]

NEW DELHI: The Centre told Supreme Court Tuesday that it was reconsidering the amendment brought in surrogacy law last year by which use of donor gametes-ova or egg cells and sperm-was banned, and assured it would soon come out with a decision, reports Amit Anand Choudhary.Appearing before a bench, additional SG Aishwarya Bhati said the process had already begun and experts were applying their minds. The ASG was responding to the court’s query as to why Centre was not taking a decision despite many women approaching court with their grievances and being exempted on the basis of their medical reports, which showed they were unable to produce eggs.The top court had earlier held the amendment was prima facie contrary to the main provision of Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, and granted relief to the petitioners.Following a notification issued on March 14 last year, Rule 7 of the Act says the couple undergoing[…]

The high court bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal ordered that the single NRI father would be the sole guardian of the child. The HC bench said the father will have custody of the child and would further decide whether the boy will remain in India or Australia. The Punjab and Haryana high court has granted guardianship of a four-year-old surrogate boy to a single NRI father living in Australia. The high court bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal ordered that the single NRI father would be the sole guardian of the child. The HC bench said the father will have custody of the child and would further decide whether the boy will remain in India or Australia. The boy was born in December 2019. In June 2022, the NRI father was refused visa by the Australian Embassy on the grounds that the child was born through surrogacy in India,[…]

The Karnataka High Court has allowed a batch of petitions and permitted thirteen couples to opt for surrogacy using donor gametes (a person who provides sperm or oocyte). The bench said the new amendment to the Surrogacy Rules which prohibits the use of donor eggs for gestational surrogacy of an intending couple can be diluted on a case to case basis. Justice M Nagaprasanna however refrained from examining the validity of the amendment, stating that the issue is pending before the Supreme Court. The petitioners had challenged the amendment dated 14.03.2023 made to Form 2 under Rule 7 of the Surrogacy Rules, which is the form for Consent of the Surrogate Mother and Agreement for Surrogacy. The amendment substituted paragraph 1(d) in Form 2 to ensure that a couple undergoing surrogacy cannot have donor gametes and both the male and female gamete must come from the intending couple.Court said the[…]

The United Arab Emirates’ new laws around surrogacy ‘might change a lot for’ Real Housewife Caroline Stanbury and her husband, Sergio Carrallo After her adopted home drafted new laws around surrogacy and fertility treatment, Real Housewives of Dubai star Caroline Stanbury is thinking about what the changes could means for the future of her family. Speaking to The Messenger at BravoCon 2023, Stanbury, 47, called the legislative update “a big thing.” According to Al Arabiya, the United Arab Emirates has lifted a ban on surrogacy for unmarried, non-Muslim couples. In addition — and more importantly for Stanbury and her husband Sergio Carrallo, 29 — a clause that criminalized the involvement of a third-party woman in the surrogacy process has been eliminated by the UAE. “We have a baby boy on ice,” Stanbury said. “He’s genetically perfect and ready to go. This might change a lot for us, actually.” Read More

Two-judge Bench comes to the rescue of a woman suffering from the rare medical condition of Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser syndrome by staying the operation of a law which threatened to wreck her hopes of becoming a mother The Supreme Court has protected the right of parenthood of a woman, suffering from a rare medical condition, by staying the operation of a law which threatened to wreck her hopes to become a mother through surrogacy. The woman, known only as ‘Mrs. ABC’ for anonymity sake, has the Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. Medical board records showed she has “absent ovaries and absent uterus, hence she cannot produce her own eggs/oocytes”. The couple had begun the process of gestational surrogacy, through a donor, on December 7 last year. Read More

Sweeping changes to fertility regulation in the UAE – which have relaxed laws around IVF and egg freezing for non-Muslim, unmarried couples and lifted a ban on surrogacy – have been welcomed by experts, who say couples now have more options than ever to conceive or have a child. In a significant legal development, unmarried non-Muslim couples in the UAE are now permitted to undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, following a recent revision to the law, provided the relevant eggs and sperm are taken from the couple concerned. New surrogacy laws Updates to the country’s fertility legislation also remove a previous clause that criminalized the involvement of a third-party woman in carrying a couple’s child – paving the way for couples to explore…. Read More