Bengaluru: IVF Centre Cheats Man Of Rs 4.75 Lakh, Consumer Court Orders Refund & Additional Fine

A divorcee from Mysuru, who was promised a kid or twins through surrogacy by an IVF centre in Bengaluru, claims to have been cheated by the centre.  He claims to have paid around Rs.4.75 lakhs for the procedure, but later he was denied having kids from the system stating that single men can’t have a kid under the surrogacy law in India. He later filed a case in consumer court and the court ordered the IVF centre to refund the man, with additional interest.

What happened?

According to Times of India’s report, Martin Sujay, who is in his early 40’s came to know about Dr Rama’s Fertility IVF centre in Indiranagar, Bengaluru, through a Kannada newspaper in 2016. He came to know that they offered surrogacy as an option for childbirth for single men.  The centre confirmed him that he could have a child through surrogate mother by spending Rs 7 lakhs and by spending an additional Rs 1.5 lakhs he can even have twins. He was convinced by the centre, and on August 19, 2016, he paid Rs 2.25 lakhs as an initial amount.
The clinic had not introduced him to the surrogate mother for the initial eight months stating various reasons. Then, before even meeting the mother Sujay was made to pay additional Rs.2.5 lakh on April 24, 2017. Later Sujay was told that the surrogate mother who was coming to the clinic met with an accident, and ran away with half of the amount. He was assured that the centre would find a new surrogate mother as soon as possible. Finally, when Sujay and his parents confronted the doctors, they told that it is not possible for a single man to have a child through surrogacy.

Matter goes to the Court

The Surrogacy centre told that it would partially refund the money, as money had been spent in some tests conducted on Sujay and the surrogate mother who ran away. But Sujay demanded payment of the full amount, for which the centre told that they would find him a new mother.
Sujay felt cheated and approached the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in Shantinagar on March 2, 2018. He filed a case against centre’s CEO Dr Rakhee Mishra and Dr Papolu Rama Devi.  On Oct 26th the court asked the doctors to pay additional Rs.3 lakhs to Sujay as penalty along with refunding the Rs.4.75 lakhs with 10% interest in six weeks.

What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is when another woman carries a baby in her womb for someone who needs a child. Surrogacy is of two types.
Full surrogacy:
Embryo formed using sperm and egg of the couple or the donors and is then implanted into the womb of the surrogate mother is called full surrogacy.
Partial Surrogacy:
Through Artificial insemination, the sperm from the intended father and egg of the surrogate mother is used to create an embryo, is called Partial Surrogacy.

Surrogacy Laws in India

Guidelines for Surrogacy were introduced in the year 2002 in India, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Then, surrogacy was made legal but didn’t have legislative backing.
In August 2016 the Union Cabinet introduced Surrogacy (Regulation) bill, 2016. It stated that single male parent could not opt surrogacy procedure, commercial surrogacy should be banned, the surrogate mother should not be given any monetary benefits apart from medical expenses and should be a blood relative and should also be married with a child of her own.
Source: The Logical Indian
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