Delhi high court: ‘Our son died. Now we can use his sperm to have a grandchild’

In court, Ganga Ram Hospital said legally they could only release the sample to the spouse. They said there were no clear laws or guidelines that governed the release of semen samples of an unmarried deceased male to his parents or legal heirs.

The Indian government also opposed the couple’s petition, saying that surrogacy laws in India were meant to assist infertile couples or women, not people who wanted to have a grandchild.

The authorities also pointed out that Preet Inder was unmarried – India’s Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Act 2021, external bars single people from having children via surrogacy – and that he had not left any written or oral consent for the use of his frozen sperm so his parents did not have an automatic right to use it.

Ms Aggarwal, the couple’s lawyer, argued in court that while filling in the form for storing his semen, Preet Inder had clearly specified that it was for the purpose of IVF.

The form, she told the BBC, had the mobile numbers of both father and son, which implied consent. She pointed out that the father had been paying the lab for preserving the sample.

The ART Act, she said, was introduced to stop commercial use of surrogacy, to regulate and supervise clinics, not to impinge upon personal freedoms of aggrieved parents.

Justice Singh agreed with Ms Aggarwal’s argument that Preet Inder had given consent for his sperm to be used for the purpose of having children.

“He was not married and did not have any partner. He intended for the sample to be used in order to bear a child. When he passed away, the parents being the heirs of the deceased, and semen samples being genetic material and constituting property, the parents are entitled for release of the same.”

Under those circumstances, the court said they could not prohibit the couple from accessing the semen sample of their son.

The court order, Ms Kaur says, has offered her a “glimmer of hope, a light” that “we will be able to bring our son back”.

“I have prayed every day to fulfil all my child’s unfulfilled desires. It’s taken four years, but my prayers have been answered,” she adds.