In Brief
The Supreme Court held that age restrictions under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 cannot apply retrospectively to couples who began surrogacy treatment before the Act took effect on 25 January 2022. Three couples challenged denial of surrogacy eligibility certificates due to exceeding the Act's age limits (female: 50; male: 55), despite having frozen embryos before the Act's commencement. The Court found that freezing embryos crystallizes a couple's vested right to pursue surrogacy under Article 21. Applying the presumption against retrospective legislation, the bench ruled couples who had completed gamete extraction and embryo freezing before the Act cannot be denied continuation of their procedure. The judgment protects reproductive autonomy while affirming the Act's prospective application to future applicants.
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