JAIPUR:
The Jaipur bench of Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the union
and the state home departments asking them to produce the Japanese surrogate
baby Manji in court within four weeks and explain why the baby was being allowed
to be taken to Japan. A division bench of Justice R C Gandhi and Justice Guman
Singh issued notices citing ambiguity regarding surrogacy in India. The baby is
at present in a Jaipur hospital under the supervision of her Japanese
grandmother.
The notice was
issued on a habeas corpus petition filed by a Jaipur-based NGO, SATYA, alleging
that in the absence of any surrogacy law in the country, the surrogate child
born out of the sperm of a Japanese father could not be kept in the custody of
her Japanese grandmother,
Emiko.
The court has issued
notices to the Union ministry of home affairs, the principal secretary,
department of home affairs, Rajasthan, DG police, Rajasthan, and SP, Jaipur
east, asking them to produce the child in court within four weeks and also file
their reply on the issue.
In
the petition it has been stated that the surrogate mother, Pritiben Mehta, had
rented her womb purely for financial reasons as she had no relations with the
Japanese parents. This, the petition says, is "illegitimate conception for money
on a commercial basis".
"Since
there is no law on surrogacy in the country and the legitimacy of the child
cannot be
claimed by
anyone, hence the
so-called grand-mother, Emiko, cannot be handed over the legal custody of the
child as neither the surrogate mother nor the sperm-donor father, Dr Ikufumi
Yamada, has even tried to take the child in their custody," the petitioner
counsel told the court. The counsel argued that the consent by the surrogate
mother was given in the form of a written agreement on June 3, 2008, and she
delivered the child on July 25, which is not
possible.
It was also alleged
that Dr Naynaben Patel and the Akanksha IVF of Kaival Hospital, Anand —
where the child was born — and the surrogate mother have acted purely on a
commercial basis and has earned huge profits (not all of it disclosed). They are
working;
it was alleged, for furthering
the illegal trade in infants and selling them to foreigners by taking advantage
of the lack of proper surrogacy laws.