The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted a 42-year-old woman the right to meet her five-year-old twin daughters, saying that the sperm donor or egg donor has no legal right over the child. The court also said that the donor cannot claim to be the biological parent of the child.
In fact, the woman who filed the petition in this case had told that her daughters born through surrogacy are living with her husband and her younger sister who donated eggs. The woman’s husband had claimed that since his sister-in-law is an egg donor, she has the legal right to be called the biological mother of the twins. Apart from this, he also said that his wife has no right on the children. Bombay High Court refused to accept this argument.
What did the court say?
In its decision, the court said that the younger sister of the petitioner was definitely an egg donor, but she cannot claim to be the biological mother of the children. The court said that the younger sister became a donor willingly and at the most she may be eligible to become a genetic mother. Nothing more than that. The court also made it clear that as per the rules, the egg donor and the surrogate mother will have to give up all her parental rights and, in this case, the petitioner and her husband will be the parents of the twin girls.
What is the matter?
According to the petition, the couple could not conceive naturally. After which the petitioner’s sister voluntarily offered to donate her eggs to the couple. After this, with the help of a surrogate woman, twin girls were born in August 2019. After this, in April 2019, the sister (egg donor) and her family met with a road accident in which her husband and daughter died.
The petitioner lived with her husband and twin daughters from August 2019 to March 2021. After this, in March 2021, after marital discord, the husband went to live in another flat with the children without informing his wife. The man also claimed that his wife’s sister (the egg donor) had gone into depression after a road accident. Later she started living with him to take care of the twins.
Later the petitioner lodged a complaint with the police and filed an application in the local court seeking the right to meet his daughters. The local court had rejected his application in September 2023. After this he approached the High Court. The High Court said that the lower court order depriving the wife of the right to meet the children was passed without thinking. The court directed the husband to give the petitioner the right to meet the twins for three hours every week.