The Telangana High Court has directed state health authorities to issue a surrogacy eligibility certificate within 10 days to a couple seeking parenthood nearly 11 years after their only son died in a traffic collision.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy issued the order on July 22 while quashing a February 23 decision by central authorities that had denied the couple’s application under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.
High Court Mandates Ten Day Compliance
The court instructed the Additional Director of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Surrogacy in Telangana to release the required Eligibility and Essentiality Certificates upon receipt of the order. The directive remains subject to the couple fulfilling any remaining statutory requirements under the relevant rules and legislation.
In ruling for the petitioners, the High Court cited an October 9, 2025 Supreme Court precedent. The apex court had previously interpreted provisions of the 2021 legislation to grant surrogacy relief to an intending couple under exceptional circumstances, specifically relaxing age restrictions outlined in Section 4(iii)(c)(I). Justice Reddy determined that the legal principle established by the top court applied directly to the couple’s petition, which was disposed of without any order regarding legal costs.
Tragic History Led to Rejection
Court records indicate that the husband first married in 1996 and had a child born in February 1997. Following a divorce in November 2008, he retained custody of that child. He subsequently remarried in February 2013, and the couple had a son in June 2014.
The couple was left without a child from their marriage after their son died in a road accident in December 2015. When they later sought to utilize surrogacy, competent authorities rejected their request in February. Officials stated that under existing regulations, surrogacy for a second child is restricted to cases where an existing child suffers from a fatal illness, life-threatening disorder, or incurable abnormality—a condition the couple did not meet.
Broader Legal Context on Reproductive Autonomy
The ruling coincides with recent judicial decisions addressing statutory restrictions under surrogacy laws across India. On July 7, the Allahabad High Court also granted relief to a couple married for over 17 years who were previously barred due to statutory age limits.
In that case, Justices Shekhar B Saraf and Abhdesh Kumar Chaudhary relaxed the age ceiling for a woman over 50 who had preserved three embryos more than a decade earlier following unsuccessful in-vitro fertilization treatments. The bench held that rigid enforcement of age limits under the 2021 Act infringed upon the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
