Woman in Assam challenges ART Act’s provision barring women over 50; High Court pulls up fertility clinic for non co-operation

High Court of Meghalaya questions fertility clinic in Assam over woman's bid to conceive past age 50.

The High Court of Meghalaya has pulled up a fertility clinic in Assam over a Meghalaya woman’s bid to conceive past the age of 50 years.

A few weeks ago, the woman approached the Guwahati-based Institute of Human Reproduction to undergo a procedure to become pregnant. The Institute told her that the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act of 2021 bars women over the age of 50 to undergo the procedure unless she had a court order permitting her to do so.

The woman then filed a writ petition at the High Court of Meghalaya challenging the portion of the Act that does not allow women over 50 years to avail of ART, and for directions to the institute to carry out the procedure.

The court subsequently asked the Institute to form a medical board to let it know whether the said procedure could be carried out safely on the petitioner. It also directed the Union of India and the State government to take instructions on the matter.

On Monday (February 10, 2025), a division bench of Chief Justice I.P. Mukerji and Justice W. Diengdoh said it was “shocked” to note the Institute’s failure to constitute the medical board as it lacked a multi-speciality team. The Institute had informed the court on February 5 about its inability to form the board.

“Kindly note that we are a health facility which specialises in rendering mother and child services. Hence, we would suggest that the same may be requested to any government hospital/medical college and hospital/any multi-speciality hospital having the adequate facility and expertise,” the institute said.