SC: Age bar under surrogacy act not applicable to couples who began process before 2021

Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 9: In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that the age restrictions introduced under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, cannot be applied retrospectively to couples who had already initiated the surrogacy process before the law came into effect.

A bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice K.V. Viswanathan ruled that couples who had frozen embryos prior to the enactment of the 2021 law had their rights to parenthood established under the legal framework prevailing at that time, which did not impose any age limits.

"At the time the intending couple froze embryos, they came under the act and thus came under parental autonomy," Justice Nagarathna said while pronouncing the verdict. "Before 2021, there we