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Star couple Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan did not violate the surrogacy law, stated a report by the Tamil Nadu government inquiry committee on Wednesday, October 26. The report by the state Health and Family Welfare Department said that the couple, who had registered their marriage in 2016, did not violate any laws while conceiving through surrogacy. The statement also mentioned that the surrogate mother is of the appropriate age, is married and has a child.
The Tamil Nadu government had recently formed a three-member committee to investigate whether actor Nayanthara and filmmaker Vignesh Shivan had violated India’s surrogacy law. The couple, who had gotten married in a grand wedding celebration in June, had announced on social media on October 9 that they had welcomed twin boys.
“On investigating the doctor who provided treatment to the couple, it was discovered that the couple’s family doctor had provided a letter of recommendation in 2020 based on which treatment was provided,” the Health and Family Welfare Department said. However, the team could not investigate the couple’s family doctor as they had shifted to a different country and they were not reachable through phone as well.
The statement noted that the treatment records of the patient (Nayanthara’s) oocytes (a cell in the ovary that may divide to form an ovum) were not maintained properly by the private hospital. It added that 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 surrogate mother gave birth to the twin boys in October 2022.
According to the statement, the investigating team found that the hospital did not maintain proper records of the treatment offered to the couple. Since the hospital did not maintain appropriate records, the team had recommended action against the fertility clinic and asked for it to be closed temporarily.
Actor Nayanthara and filmmaker Vignesh Shivan, who got married in a grand ceremony on June 9 this year, took to social media on October 9 to share pictures of their twin boys. Sharing the news with fans, Vignesh announced the names of their children Uyir (means life) and Ulagam (means world). “Nayan & Me have become Amma & Appa. We are blessed with Twin Baby Boys. All Our prayers, our ancestors’ blessings combined with all the good manifestations made, have come 2gethr in the form Of 2 blessed babies for us. Need all ur blessings for our Uyir & Ulagam. Life looks brighter & more beautiful,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Shortly after the photo was posted, social media was rife with speculations that the babies were conceived through surrogacy. However, an official announcement had not been made. A day after the social media post was shared by filmmaker Vignesh Shivan, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian had announced earlier this month that an inquiry will be set up by the DMS to examine if the couple have violated surrogacy rules.
Commercial surrogacy was permitted in India until The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 was passed in December 2021. The law was operationalised when the Union government notified the rules in June 2022. The law, which only permits ‘altruistic surrogacy’, states that no remuneration or monetary incentive can be provided to the surrogate mother, other than the medical expenses. It also adds that a surrogate mother has to be genetically related to the couple. In addition to a couple who have a ‘medical indication necessitating gestational surrogacy’, only an Indian woman, who is a widow or divorcee between the ages of 25 to 45 can opt for surrogacy as per the new rule.
Watch: TNM had already explained how and why Nayanthara and Vignesh whatever did not violate rules
Actor Nayanthara and filmmaker Vignesh Shivan met each other during the script narration of the 2015 Tamil romantic drama Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, which featured the former in the lead, alongwith Vijay Sethupathi. The celebrity duo married each other in a grand ceremony in Chennai on June 9, which was attended by several high profile guests including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, superstar Rajinikanth, actor Kamal Haasan, filmmakers Atlee and Mani Ratnam, among others.