SC relief to couples over new surrogacy age rule

COURT SAYS AGE BAR WON'T APPLY RETROSPECTIVELY TO THOSE WHO FROZE EMBRYOS BEFORE THE SURROGACY REGULATION ACT 2021 TOOK EFFECT

- Abraham Thomas

Holding that becoming a parent is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the path for couples who had exceeded newly prescribed age limits to proceed with surrogacy, ruling that the age bar will not apply retrospectively to those who had frozen embryos before the Surrogacy Regulation Act 2021 took effect on January 25, 2022.

Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Viswanathan ruled that the age bar—23 to 50 years for women and 26 to 55 for men—prescribed under Section 4(ii)(¢)(1) of the Act will not apply retrospectively to couples who commenced the surrogacy process before January 25, 2022."Ifan intending couple had commenced the surrogacy procedure prior to the commencement of the Act ie,, January 25, 2022, and wereat the stage of creation of embryosand freezing after extraction of gametes, and on the threshold of transfer of embryos to the uterus of the surrogate mother, the age restriction under Section 4(iii)(©)(0) of the Act would not apply,” the bench held.