Indian authorities have issued a birth certificate to a Japanese baby born to an Indian surrogate mother, easing the way for her Japanese father to take her home, news reports said Saturday.
The certificate was issued by the municipal authorities in Anand town of western Gujarat state, where 16-day-old Manji was born, in the name of her father biological Ikufumi Yamada, IANS news agency reported.
Manji, who was shifted to a hospital in another Indian town, Jaipur, days after she was born, is at the centre of a legal wrangle as India does not have any surrogacy laws.
Ikufumi Yamada and his wife Yuki, who could not have children, chose a surrogate mother in India's Gujarat to carry their child.
But before the child was born on July 24, Yuki Yamada divorced her husband and disowned the child.
The child's father is keen to take the baby girl back home to Tokyo but an archaic Indian law that does not allow a single father to adopt a female child is standing in the way.
India does not have any laws on surrogacy and the only way biological parents can claim a surrogate child is through adoption.
But Manji's birth certificate naming Yuki Yamada as her biological father has brightened her chances of getting a Japanese passport and may make it easier for Yamada to take her home.
Currently, Yamada has returned to Japan leaving his 70-year-old mother at Manji's side.
"We received the birth certificate today and forwarded it to Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaisingh, seeking her advice on the future course of action," said Sanjay Arya, who runs the Jaipur hospital where Manji is being kept.
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