Chennai: Madras high court has issued guidelines for magistrates who deal with custody and parentage applications in surrogacy cases. The court has said that such applications must be disposed of in four weeks unless a deeper scrutiny is required where fraud, fabrication of documents, involuntary consent and commercial surrogacy is alleged.Justice Shamim Ahmed passed the order on a plea moved by Sri Nandhini Devi, challenging the order of a judicial magistrate refusing parentage and custody of child, to be born through surrogacy.Setting aside the order, the court remitted the case back to the magistrate for fresh consideration and suggested seven elaborate guidelines to be followed by all magistrates’ handling surrogacy cases in order to ensure uniformity in judicial practice and avoid unnecessary hardship to intending couples, surrogate mothers and children born through surrogacy.As per the guidelines, the magistrate is not expected to sit in appeal over findings recorded by the district medical board or the appropriate authority except where fraud, lack of jurisdiction or patent illegality is apparent on the face of the record.The magistrate shall interact with the intending couple and surrogate mother to satisfy themself regarding, voluntariness, absence of coercion, absence of undue influence and understanding of legal consequences and record the same. Such interactions need not assume the character of a full-fledged trial, the court said.The magistrate shall satisfy themselves that no commercial consideration is involved; parties understand the statutory prohibition and that the arrangement is altruistic in nature, the judge said.Asserting that the welfare of the child must remain paramount consideration, the court added that the magistrate shall ensure that legal parentage is clearly established, custody immediately vests with the intending parents upon birth, and no legal vacuum exists regarding guardianship.
