The Supreme Court has ruled that the age restriction under the Surrogacy Regulation Act of 2021 will not apply to couples who had frozen their embryos before the Act came into effect on January 25, 2022, according to a report by LiveLaw.
A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice KV Viswanathan stated that the right to surrogacy for these couples was established when they froze their embryos under the laws in effect at the time, which did not include an age limit. They emphasised that this right is part of reproductive autonomy and parenthood, and therefore, the age restriction under the Surrogacy Act cannot be applied retrospectively to these couples, according to the report.
The court clarified that it has not decided on the validity of the age bar under the Act but only considered its application to couples who began the process prior to the Act coming into force and got disqualified due to age bar, as reported by LiveLaw.
The Act stipulates that surrogacy can be pursued by couples where the wife is between 23 and 50 years old, and the husband is between 26 and 55 This order was made in the context of a case involving three couples. The court stated that any other couples in a similar situation should approach their respective high courts for relief based on this ruling, according to LiveLaw.
(With inputs from LiveLaw)