With a Bill to legalise surrogacy on the anvil, the Supreme Court on Wednesday told Centre that the “business” of commercial surrogacy cannot go on in the country without a legal sanction and it is high time, the Centre introduced the law to regulate such practices.
Dealing with the complex issue of surrogacy arising in an appeal against a Gujarat High Court order where a German couple was granted Indian citizenship for their surrogate twins, the Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana were anguished to note that the Bill on this subject was hanging fire since 2010 even as commercial surrogacy was rampant.
Commenting on the “surrogacy tourism” as the practice is called where foreign couples rent a womb of an Indian woman to procure a child, the bench said, “You (Centre) are free to allow it for altruistic purposes but not for commercial surrogacy…you are only adding to the problem without having a statutory scheme in place.”
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar who appeared for the Centre informed the Court that the proposed law termed as the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill 2010 is in consultation process and is likely to take another year to be finalised.
The Bench told Kumar to seek instruction by October 28 on what the scope and ambit of the law will be in order to help the Court lay down specific issues to be addressed by the bill. The Court also noted that on December 2, 2013 the Ministry of Commerce had issued a notification permitting import of human embryo. A petition filed by lawyer Jayashree Wad, also being heard by the Bench, said this notification was nothing but a license for commercial surrogacy. The Court asked SG to have a “relook” on its December 2 notification and take a comprehensive view of legal and citizenship issues linked with the subject.