The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 4, 2025) decided to examine whether a law banning married couples facing secondary infertility from using surrogacy to have a second child amounts to a state restriction on the reproductive choices of citizens.

The Union government has supported the constitutionality of the legal provision, Section 4(iii)(C)(II) of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, arguing that availing surrogacy cannot be claimed as a fundamental right. It has contended that surrogacy involves the use of the womb of another woman, the surrogate mother, and should be availed only after all other options to attain parenthood have failed, including natural birth and assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

“The Constitution does not recognise a right over another individual’s b

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