Actor Nayanthara and her husband, director Vignesh Shivan, have not broken any surrogacy laws, a panel formed by the Tamil Nadu government has found, The News Minute reported on Wednesday.
On October 10, the couple had announced that they have become parents of twin boys. There was speculation that the couple, who got married in June, had used a surrogate mother. Hours after the announcement, the Tamil Nadu government said that it will examine whether the couple had violated surrogacy laws in India.
In India, commercial surrogacy has been banned after The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, was passed in December and came into effect on January 25, 2022.
Presently, only altruistic surrogacy is allowed. Under this, the surrogate mother will not get any remuneration or other monetary incentive, except the medical expenses. The surrogate mother also needs to be genetically related to the couple.
On Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Department in a report said that the couple was provided with a recommendation by a family doctor in 2020 based on which treatment was provided.
The surrogate mother entered into an agreement with the couple in November 2021 and the embryo was placed in the surrogate mother in March 2022, the health department said, according to The News Minute.
It added that the surrogate mother was of the appropriate age, married and had her own child.
The department, however, found records regarding the treatment given to the couple and the medical condition of the surrogate mother were not maintained by the hospital, reported India Today.
The health department said that a notice regarding the records was issued to the hospital.
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