Mumbai :A couple here has moved the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to set up a district surrogacy board as per provisions of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 and to process registrations of infertility clinics in Mumbai.
A division bench headed by Justice SV Gangapurwala on Monday sought the government's response to the plea and posted it for hearing on December 12.
As per the petition, the husband and wife, both in their 40s now, got married in 2016.
The woman has been suffering from diabetes and other related ailments since a young age. She failed to conceive following which they approached various fertility clinics and experts, but it did not result in pregnancy. According to the plea, the couple then decided to go for surrogacy, but learnt no clinic has been granted registration for surrogacy yet.
The plea claimed despite there being a law pertaining to surrogacy and Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART), no clinic in Mumbai has been granted registration. Without registration, no clinic can process surrogacy applications. Even the district surrogacy board has not been set up under provisions of the Act, the petition said.
"Prohibiting the petitioners to undergo ART procedures would be against the fundamental rights enshrined under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India," the plea said. PTI