Kerala High Court Permits Couple To Proceed With Non-Commercial Surrogacy

The Kerala High Court came to the rescue of a couple who had approached the Court with a plea seeking permission to a private hospital to facilitate non-commercial and altruistic surrogacy for them.Upon noticing that all necessary precautions were taken by all the concerned parties, Justice N. Nagaresh permitted the couple to proceed with surrogacy while clarifying that further directions are to be given in the case, pending the writ petition. Therefore, the matter will be taken up again on 23 May. The couple had moved the Court seeking a directive from the court to constitute an ad hoc committee to grant special permission for them and the intended surrogate mother and sanction the non-commercial and altruistic surrogacy as the registry and the sanctioning authorities have not yet been constituted as per the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. In their plea, the couple had contended that though the Act has been in force, no authorised institution or appropriate authorities were constituted to register and sanction the legal, i.e, non-commercial/altruistic surrogacy. The woman being a lawyer, appeared in person and argued the case herself. She submitted that she had undergone infertility treatments such as IUI and IVF several times in the past but to no avail following which their well-wishers advised surrogacy as a last resort to fulfil their desire to have a child.It was also submitted that the doctor informed them that the chance of her getting pregnant was remote or hardly possible.The Judge deemed it fit to give a green light to the procedure after the hospital authorities disclosed that they were equipped with sufficient clinical facilities and they have competent doctors to supervise and perform the procedure. The Government Pleader also informed the Court that the Superintendent of a government hospital had constituted a medical board and issued a Certificate of Medical Indication for the intended surrogacy.Further, the petitioners produced the order of the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court approving parentage and custody. They also produced the insurance taken for 36 months as stipulated under Section 4 (iii)(a) (III) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. The petitioner also produced a Certificate of Medical and Psychological Fitness of the surrogate mother issued by a qualified doctor. The surrogate also filed an affidavit acknowledging that the hospital authorities had explained all side effects of the procedure to her and the Judge recorded her consent to being a surrogate. As such, the Single Bench allowed the couple to proceed with non-commercial surrogacy. Case Title: Deepa Srinivasan & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors. Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Ker) 188Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Kerala High Court Permits Couple To Proceed With Non-Commercial Surrogacy

Hannah M Varghese

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