Couples paid up to Rs 30 lakh for a child Dr Pachipala Namratha promised was theirs. Police say newborns were bought and handed over; names of biological parents never recorded.
Dr Pachipala Namratha's fertility clinics ran in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh for nearly 3 decades. Her patients got someone else’s child. Her agents got Rs 50k a baby, police say.
ED claims newborns were procured from poor families, birth certificates forged, & childless couples charged up to Rs 30 lakh in a trafficking racket masked as surrogacy services.
On petitions filed by 3 couples, Justices Nagarathana & Vishwanathan emphasised that a law is deemed to have only prospective application unless it is explicitly expressed or implied.
The man has argued that excluding single & divorced men from surrogacy under the law in unconstitutional. SC is also hearing other challenges to the Act.
The use of the term 'universal crime' to describe the ban evokes the Italian criminal code for crimes that contravene 'universal values'—putting surrogacy on par with genocide.
Italy extends surrogacy ban already in place in Italy since 2004 to those who go to countries such as the US or Canada imposing 2-year jail term and fines of up to $1.09mn.
Centre’s notification this month allows couples to use one donor gamete. But it also makes it mandatory that a surrogate child should have one gamete of the intended parents.
SC indicates it might stay a provision of Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022, that bars intending parents from accepting donor eggs to bear a surrogate child.
Share of trade with FTA partners rose from 4.6% in 2006 to 28.8% in 2024. India is currently negotiating or advancing agreements with US, Israel, GCC, Canada & Mexico.
American objectives are unmet. They neither have muscle nor motivation to resume the war. As for Iran, the regime didn’t just survive, it’s now led by more radical individuals.
COMMENTS