Surrogacy Law in India

Only altruistic surrogacy is legal in India in 2026. This is the practice in which the surrogate cannot ask for a fee, salary or anything which can be counted as such. The intended parents are only allowed to cover her medical expenses which are related to her pregnancy and a compulsory insurance policy. If you intend to pay her a salary or cost of bearing your child as a surrogate, that will be considered as commercial surrogacy, which is a criminal offence as per the law in India. 

Two connected laws do the work here.

• The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 covers who may undertake surrogacy at all. Your surrogate's eligibility sits in it too, along with the certificates you need and the penalties for getting any of it wrong. In force since 25 January 2022.
  
  

• The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 governs the clinic side of it, the IVF clinics and the ART banks, and the medical procedures that create and transfer your embryos.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2024, notified in February 2024, are the most recent significant change, and we cover them below.

What these rules mean for your specific medical and family situation is a different question from what they say in general. An online consultation with Oji Surrogacy & IVF Care can take you through it.

What does the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 actually say?

At its core the Act is there to prevent the exploitation of surrogate mothers, and to protect the rights of the child and of you as intending parents. In practice it does five things.

1. It bans commercial surrogacy. Only altruistic surrogacy is permitted.
   
   

2. It defines who is eligible to be an intending parent, and separately who may act as your surrogate.
   
   

3. No treatment starts until the official certificates are in hand, the Essentiality and the Eligibility.
   
   

4. Insurance and welfare protections for your surrogate are mandatory.
   
   

5. It sets criminal penalties for violations. Advertising for a surrogate counts. So does running an unregistered clinic.

Only gestational surrogacy is allowed. Your surrogate carries an embryo created through IVF, and has no genetic link to the child. Traditional surrogacy, where the surrogate's own egg is used, is not permitted.

Who is eligible for surrogacy under Indian law?

Eligibility has three layers and you have to clear all three, or the process cannot legally proceed. There is who you are, as an intending parent or as a couple. There is the medical condition that justifies surrogacy in your case. And there is who your surrogate can be.

If you are a married couple

Applying as an intending couple means you have to be legally married Indian citizens, and married for at least five years. Your ages are read on the day the eligibility certificate is issued: the wife 23–50 years old, the husband 26–55. You will need a District Medical Board certificate confirming the medical condition that makes surrogacy necessary. Generally you must also have no surviving child, biological or adopted or from an earlier surrogacy, though narrow exceptions exist where a child has a severe disability or a life-threatening illness.

Single women, and where they stand

Among single women the 2021 Act reaches a specific group and does not include widowed or divorced Indian women aged 35 to 45. If you are a never-married single woman you are not currently permitted under the Act. Nor are single men, same-sex couples or live-in partners. However, some of the above exclusions are being challenged in the court, so the positions may yet move. 

Are you still confused about whether you meet these conditions or not? If yes, then check out our eligibility criteria guide and book a personalised online consultation with the experts at Oji Surrogacy & IVF Care.

Who can be a surrogate mother in India?

Your surrogate must be an ever-married Indian woman aged 25 to 35 with at least one child of her own. A certificate of medical and psychological fitness has to come from her. She may do this only once in her lifetime. Her own eggs cannot go into the pregnancy either. And you cannot advertise to recruit her, which the Act prohibits outright.

Our dedicated page on who can be a surrogate goes into more detail.

What changed under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2024?

The February 2024 amendment closed several practical gaps in the original rules. Here are the key ones.

• Donor gametes are now permitted in specified medical situations. A 2023 restriction had banned them all. The 2024 amendment lets you use one donor gamete, either a donor egg or donor sperm, if a District Medical Board certifies it is a medical necessity. Where both of you require donor gametes, surrogacy is not permitted.
  
  

• The definition of infertility was broadened. It now reaches conditions that pose a serious risk to the mother's life during pregnancy, not only the inability to conceive.
  
  

• Surrogate welfare protections were strengthened.

For medically deserving couples the framework became somewhat more accessible. The altruistic-only model stayed, and so did its ethical safeguards. The rules do keep evolving, ongoing court cases included, so confirm the current position for your situation before you plan around it.