Chandigarh, Dec 22: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that assisted reproductive technology (ART) services cannot be denied to a married couple solely because one partner has crossed the upper age limit prescribed under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, as long as the other partner meets the eligibility criteria.
A bench led by Justice Suvir Sehgal said the statute places age restrictions on individuals based on gender and does not impose a combined or joint age bar on couples seeking treatment.
“Section 21(g) of the Act makes it mandatory for the clinic to apply ART services to a woman only if she is above the age of 21 years and below 50, and to a man if he is above 21 and below 55,” the court said. “There is no age restriction for a couple.”
The ruling came on a petition filed by a couple married in 2004 who had sought infertility treatment at an IVF fertility centre in Jalandhar. The centre refused treatment after noting that the husband had crossed the age of 55, making him ineligible under the 2021 law.
After being denied treatment, the couple approached the high court seeking permission to avail ART services.
The IVF centre told the court that the age restriction was laid down in the law after considering the best interests of a child born through ART procedures and argued that the couple did not meet the statutory conditions.
The Centre and the Union government contended that the petitioners fell within the definition of a “commissioning couple,” which, according to them, required both partners to satisfy the age conditions under Section 21(g).
Rejecting the argument, the court noted that the Act defines a commissioning couple as an infertile married couple approaching an ART clinic for authorized services and does not prescribe any combined age limit.
“The woman in the present case falls within the eligibility criteria, being less than 50 years of age, and is not debarred from seeking ART,” the court said, directing the fertility centre to permit the couple to undergo treatment.
