NEW DELHI, Apr 19: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on a plea against a provision of the surrogacy law which bars married couples from having a second child through surrogacy if they have a healthy first child.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih issued notice to the Union of India on a plea filed by a couple challenging the constitutional validity of section 4(iii)(c)(ii) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.
Section 4 (iii)(C)(ii) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 stipulates couples who desire to have a child through surrogacy to secure an eligibility certificate stating that they do not have any surviving child (biologically or through adoption or surrogacy).
The couple has described the impugned provision as “irrational, discriminatory and without any sound determining principles”. They have said it was in gross violation of the reproductive rights of a woman guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life and personal liberty).
Their plea says after the wife’s first delivery, it has become life-threatening for her to conceive a second child, thereby leaving surrogacy as her last resort. (PTI)
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