Despite Clarifying In Court That Surrogate Mother Need Not Be Genetically Related To Child, Centre Refuses To Issue Notification, Petitioners Claim

The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday that despite issuing an important clarification to an apex court bench regarding the eligibility of a surrogate mother under the existing surrogacy laws in the country, no notification or office memorandum to that effect had been passed by the central government. She said: “The government has not issued any notification with respect to their clarification that a surrogate mother need not be genetically related to the child. After looking at the act, we will take note of the kind of difficulties individuals and couples are facing.” Besides directing the matter to be listed on Tuesday, May 9, the bench also directed : “Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati may submit a response to the interim applications on a common sheet available to all concerned persons as well as this court so that it could pass orders in the separate applications.” Recent verdict by Karnataka High Court on 'genetically related' condition for surrogacy Recently, the Karnataka High Court had also expressed concerns about the condition that the surrogate mother has to be genetically related to the intending couples. The words “genetically related” appearing in Section 2 can only mean that the child to be born through surrogacy should be genetically related to the intending couple, failing which, the words genetically related would not have any meaning if it were to be said that the surrogate mother should be genetically related to the intending couple. After the top court agreed to hear the challenge against the two acts in September, several other petitions and applications were filed raising similar and related questions, such as whether it was constitutional to exclude unmarried women from the ambit of the Surrogacy Act, or whether limiting the number of donations made by an oocyte donor under the ART Act would amount to ‘unscientific and irrational restrictions’.