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 surrogacy by intending couples.
Accordingly, the court redirected the latest batch of applications to their respective jurisdictional high courts, hoping that ‘similarly-placed’ litigants would follow suit.
The judge also acknowledged that an umbrella order, not specific to any one or group of litigants, prohibiting future applicants from approaching it for such permission, could not be passed.
