After two years of heart rendering legal troubles, German twins Leonard and Nikolas Balaz will finally be allowed to go home. Jan Balaz and Susan Anna Lohle, the natural parents of the twins successfully concluded a legal battle to take their children home with the government finally allowing them to do so by granting them an exit visa. The Balaz case only highlights an urgent need for legislation, or at the very least, a comprehensive policy on surrogacy laws.

A vacation bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad, wishing the twins good luck, stated that no other surrogate children must be made to undergo trials similar to that of the Balaz twins. The vacation bench took up this matter after Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Union, and Senior Counsel Kamini Jaiswal appearing for the natural parents sought urgent audience during the vacation.

The apex court had ordered the Central Adoption Resources Agency (CARA) to expedite the adoption process. CARA, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women & Child Development of the Government of India is mandated to look into issues relating to adoption.

The Law Commission in August last year, had submitted a report on the Need for Legislation to Regulate Assisted Reproductive Technology Clinics as well as the rights and obligations of the parties to a surrogacy, to the law ministry. The report however has received flak from many quarters, specifically on the lack of a practical approach.

G.R. Hari [pictured], a lawyer, and founder of India’s first fertility law firm, Indian Surrogacy Law Centre, told Bar and Bench, “The report is totally inadequate and does not focus on the practical aspects at all. It focuses on the rights of the parents and not the surrogate mother and talks about the need to prohibit sex selection, which in any case shouldn’t be allowed.”  Hari, who also runs a surrogacy blog, adds, “The law commission has made only a feeble impact in its recommendations compared to the need of the hour.”