Centre holding talks with Germany

The Centre is in talks with German authorities to sort out the citizenship issue of twins borne for a German couple by a surrogate in Gujarat.

The Centre is in talks with German authorities to sort out the citizenship issue of twins borne for a German couple by a surrogate in Gujarat.

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“We have taken up the matter with the German authorities through the ministry of external affairs and hope to solve the problem,” Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the SC on Monday.

The court gave the Centre time till January 18 to facilitate efforts to settle the legal issue of the twins’ citizenship through diplomatic channels.

On a petition filed by the Centre, the SC had earlier stayed a Gujarat high court’s order, asking Indian authorities to grant citizenship to the twins.

Germany has refused visas to them, as it does not recognise surrogacy as a “means of parenthood”.

Putting the onus on India, Germany has now said it would consider giving visas to the twins, if India approached it.

“If the Indian government approaches us, we will certainly take a note of it,” German ambassador Thomas Mataussek told CNN-IBN. He was asked whether his country would reconsider giving visas to the twins, if India gave gives them one-time passport.

“We have to be careful. We don’t want to set a precedent… This is not the way to put children into the world,” he said.

The Centre has refused Indian passports to the twins on the ground that it would amount to granting them the citizenship.

The Gujarat high court’s order had come in response to lawsuit filed by the babies’ biological father Jan Balaaz and his wife, seeking passports for the twins born in January 2008.

The couple came to India in December 2006 in search of a surrogate.

(Inputs from Jayanth Jacob)