The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to suggest in two months whether it was in favour of an absolute ban on commercial surrogacy.
The move by the court comes at a time when the Centre is preparing the draft of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill and has invited suggestions from public before finalising its content. Till then, the Centre had put in place three notifications issued separately by the Ministry of Commerce banning import of human embryo, the Ministry of Home Affairs denying visa to foreigners intended to visit India for commissioning surrogacy, and Ministry of Health regulating ART clinics and IVF clinics offering surrogacy services.
These notifications will hold the field to ensure that commercial surrogacy will not be available to foreigners. However, Centre maintained that it was still open to allow altruistic surrogacy to needy infertile married Indian couples after their needs are found to be genuine by an authority to be prescribed by the Bill.
While accepting the action taken so far by the Centre, the bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana felt that the PIl filed by advocate Jayashree Wad which is under consideration cannot be closed as the issue of banning commercial surrogacy had yet not been decided.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted an additional affidavit dated November 10 where Centre categorically maintained that “Union of India does not support commercial surrogacy.” He said that most of the prayers raised in the PIl had been addressed by the three notifications. These included the notification prohibiting import of human embryo issued on October 26, the withdrawal of Medical visa to foreign nationals and Overseas Indian Citizens (OIC) intending to visit India for commissioning surrogacy issued on November 3, and instructions on guidelines to be followed by ART Clinics, IVF clinics in providing surrogacy services issued on November 4.
The bench said, “The issue of import of human embryo and grant of medical visa to foreigners has been addressed. But so far as absolute ban on commercial surrogacy is concerned, that is still under consideration. So this PIl has not become infructuous.” On the next day of hearing, the Court will also consider applications filed by a surrogate mother opposing the petition.