Complete Solution For Legal Surrogacy In India

The government came up with the statutes The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, and The Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022, to regulate the surrogacy procedure in India.

Since it is a new enactment and things are in their nascent stage, Lawyers have an important role to play. They must provide guidance to the Intending Couple and ensure compliance with the law so that all the components of the surrogacy procedure are protected and there is no inter-se conflict between them.

Within a short span of time, the Intending Couple realized that the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, is actually a beneficial piece of legislation not only for Indian Citizens but also for Overseas Citizens of India.

Indian Citizens, to proceed with the surrogacy procedure, have to obtain five certificates from different authorities, namely –

i) Certificate of Medical indication from the District Medical Board.

ii) Order concerning parentage and custody of the minor from the court of Magistrate.

iii) Eligibility of the couple from appropriate authority.

iv) The surrogate mother is eligible from the appropriate authority.

v) Certificate of Essentiality from State Board.

Overseas citizen of India additionally has to obtain permission from the National Board. Since the procedure requires a lot of paper-work and the Intending Couple are not law graduates, the intending couple involves the assistance of a Lawyer, who can guide them as regards the rights and obligations of all the components of surrogacy and assist in drafting the requisite set of documents, to make timely compliances of law, represent the intending couple before the court/authority and ensure that there is no conflict between the three components of surrogacy.

Since SURROGACY laws in India only permit altruistic surrogacy, lawyers can ensure and safeguard the rights of both the intending couple, the surrogate mother, and the surrogate child.

Needless to say, the Act provides severe penalties for non-compliance with the provisions of the law, which can lead to imprisonment and fines. Hence, Lawyers play a key role in conducting due diligence and complying with the law.