Gujarat High Court Judgment

Children born to surrogate mothers are Indians

AHMEDABAD: Children born to surrogate mothers on Indian soil are Indians, the Gujarat High Court held today.

The ruling came during the hearing of a case of twins born to a German couple through a surrogate mother last year.

A German national Jan Balaz and his wife Susanne Lohle had come to India last year and entered into a surrogacy agreement with one Martha Khristi who delivered twin boys in January 2008, Nikolas and Leonard, at a fertility clinic in Anand.

Balaz had approached the HC seeking passports for the children as Indian authorities had withdrawn passports issued to them on the ground that as the parents were not Indian nationals, the children too were not the country's citizens.

A division bench of Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice A S Dave, hearing the case, held "the surrogate mother was Indian and the twin baby boys were born in India, they were entitled to the citizenship of India and as citizens of the country they were entitled to passports from the Indian Passport Authorities. The court asked the Centre to give passports to babies, granting them Indian citizenship.

Source:  The New Indian Express.

Date:  12.11.2009