Delhi court says no law in the country that forbids gestational agreements
Considering a view on the surrogacy law in the country while declaring a couple as legal and biological parents of a child born out of surrogacy, a Delhi court has said there is no law in the country that barred parties from entering into gestational agreements.
Civil Judge Chitranshi Arora of the saket courts said while there is no statute that governs surrogacy in the country, the guidelines issued by the ICMR do regulate surrogacy arrangements in India
The Court was dealing with a suit filed by the plaintiff couple against the defendants seeking the relief of declaration that they were the legal parents of the baby girl and that the defendants had no parental rights over her.
The Court said “It clearly provides that the child will be considered as the legitimate child of the couple born within the wedlock and with all the right of parentage, support and inheritance”.
The plaintiff couple had opted for Gestational Surrogacy and entered into a Gestational surrogacy agreement dated with the defendants wherein the Defendant no. 1 agreed to act as a surrogate mother with the consent and approval of her husband. As per the said agreement, the surrogate mother would just be a gestational carrier and not biologically related to the child.
It was further agreed that the defendants shall have no say and shall have no objections with respect to the intended father and mother being the parents and the sole custodian of the child born out of the said surrogacy agreement.
In the statement of the judge; the surrogate mother had submitted that she had fulfilled the obligations under the gestational agreement and she has nothing to do either with the parents of the child, and for intents and purposes, the child was of the parents.
The judge said it was pertinent to understand the law about surrogacy in India.
The court said that the Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2019, though introduced, has not become the law of the land till date.
