Ahmedabad: Custody ‘battle’ as surrogate heads to jail

AHMEDABAD: Biological parents of a two-day-old girl born through surrogacy approached the Gujarat high court on Thursday for custody of the child as the surrogate mother accused in a criminal offence and is mandated to return to Sabarmati jail from the Civil Hospital where she was brought for the child's delivery.
The couple, in their late thirties, hail from Ajmer in Rajasthan and had opted for surrogacy after more than a decade of their childless marriage.Since their relatives live in Ahmedabad, they contracted a 31-year-old divorcee woman from Lakhvad village in Mehsana to become a surrogate mother of their child.
Ironically, after the couple entered into an agreement of surrogacy with the woman, she was alleged to be a member of a child-abducting gang which was busted in February for allegedly abducting a four-month old girl and selling her for Rs 2 lakh to a co-accused in the case. The surrogate mother in this case was arrested for charges under Section 363, 370, 370 (a), 120 B, 114 of IPC and Section 81, 84, 87 of The Juvenile Justice Act. On April 6, a city sessions court denied bail to her and she is lodged in Sabarmati jail since.
When the biological parents came to know about the delivery of the child, they went to the Civil Hospital and the woman handed over the custody of the newborn to them. But the police objected and took the child back from them. The cops insisted on a court order for custody of the child because the surrogate mother is in judicial custody.
The couple hurriedly approached the high court by filing a habeas corpus petition expressing apprehension that the surrogate mother would be discharged from the hospital soon and taken back to jail. They petitioned that if the child's custody is not transferred on time, the child would also be sent to the jail with the surrogate mother post-delivery.
The couple's advocate Poonam Mehta submitted that the agreement made between the surrogate mother and the couple was clear that the biological parents will get custody of the child immediately after the birth. Accordingly, the surrogate mother is willing to give child's custody to her clients, but the police's objection is resulting in unwarranted punishment for a 48-hour-old child, who has to stay away from her legal and rightful guardians.
After hearing the case, the bench of Justice V M Pancholi and Justice R M Sareen issued notice to the state authorities concerned including the hospital officials and sought their reply on Friday morning.