Consider German Couple’s Plea for Adoption of Surrogate Twins, SC to CARA

In an important judgement, the Supreme Court has instructed the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) that it consider as one-time measure the plea moved by a German couple for adopting twins born through a surrogate Indian mother, reported PTI.

A bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly gave the agency four-week time to find out the possibility to help John Balaz and his wife on humanitarian ground, said report.

It may be mentioned that twins were born to an Indian surrogate mother and the German couple, but Germany doesn’t recognize surrogacy and so the children couldn’t be German citizen.

In the meanwhile, Indian government said that children have to be legally adopted by the German couple before they leave India for Germany.

The apex court gave the aforementioned instruction after the couple said that they were willing to go for inter-country adoption as surrogacy is punishable in their country, said report.

Earlier on February 25, the court had asked the CARA to consider grant of adoption rights as a ‘special case’ to the German couple.

The court direction came also after contention of the counsel for the union government that under the existing rules, the German couple cannot be granted adoption rights as such a privilege is available only if the children are abandoned by the biological parents.

In the present case, the government said the children were born through a surrogate mother and there was no provision under the law for inter-country adoption for children.

It however, offered to examine the plea for adoption of the German couple as a special case provided it was not treated as a precedent.