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Issue passport to Manji in 4 weeks: apex court

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: With the Centre expressing its willingness, the Supreme Court has asked the government to issue in four weeks a passport to the surrogate child Manji Yamada for travel to Japan with her grandmother Emiko Yamada.

A Bench consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma recorded an undertaking from Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati that if Ms. Emiko filed a comprehensive application for the passport and other travel documents, it would be disposed of in four weeks. If the grandmother had any grievance over the order to be passed by the Centre, she might avail herself of such remedy available in law, the court said.

The Bench was disposing of Ms. Emiko’s habeas corpus petition seeking custody of Manji after the Rajasthan High Court, on a petition filed by Satya, a non-governmental organisation, restrained her from taking the child, born to a surrogate mother, out of India.

The apex court, however, stayed the High Court order.

The child was born in July to the biological father, Ikufumi Yamada of Japan, and the surrogate mother in Anand, Gujarat. But after the fertilisation process, Dr. Yamada split with his wife and she no longer wants the baby.

It was contended that the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research for accreditation, supervision and regulation of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) clinics considered the baby a legitimate child of the biological father and that it should be allowed to go to Japan.

Further issues on surrogacy could be considered only by the National Commission for Protection of Child.

The Bench said that in the present case the Commission alone could take action because it had the right to inquire into complaints of deprivation and violation of child rights; non-implementation of laws for protection and development of children and non-compliance with policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at mitigating hardship to children.

No complaint

Writing the order, Justice Pasayat said: “It appears that till now no complaint has been made by anybody relating to the child. We, therefore, dispose of this writ petition with a direction that if any person has any grievance, the same can be ventilated before the Commission. It needs no emphasis that the Commission has to take into account various aspects necessary to be taken note of.”

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