Manji

Aug. 14: Twenty-day-old Japanese baby Manji became perhaps the youngest petitioner in the Supreme Court today, getting interim relief as she asked the judges to let her stay on with grandmother Emiko Yamada in Rajasthan.

The court let Emiko retain custody over Manji while it grappled over the matter of surrogacy rights in India. It asked police not to forcibly separate the child from the grandmother and fixed the next hearing for August 20.

Manji, born of an Indian surrogate mother and a Japanese father, Ikofusi Yamada, at a Gujarat IVF centre has been stuck in India because Ikofusi and his wife Yuki divorced in June after conception.

Japan has refused to issue a visa to her.