New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard petitions challenging several provisions of the Surrogacy Act. During this, the Central Government told the Supreme Court that same-sex couples should be kept out of the purview of the Surrogacy Act. This will encourage the misuse of this act, and there will always be apprehension about the future of the child born out of the surrogate curse.
The Central Government has also filed an affidavit in this matter. The Centre told the Supreme Court that the expert members of the National Board, in their meeting on January 19, had opined that the definition of a couple as defined under the Act(s) is correct. Same-sex couples cannot avail themselves of the benefits of the Surrogacy Act. At the same time, live-in partners are not bound by the law, and the safety of the child born through surrogacy would come into question.
The case is being heard by a bench of Justice Bela M. Trivedi and Justice Ajay Rastogi. The Centre said that only under two circumstances can a single woman be allowed surrogacy. First, either the woman is a widow or does not want to give birth to a child herself due to the fear of society. Second, the woman is divorced, or she is not willing to remarry but aspires to have a child. In both of these situations, the condition of the woman’s age being greater than 35 years has been kept.
