Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan did not break surrogacy laws, says Tamil Nadu govt; report blames hospital for confusion

A panel set up by the Tamil Nadu government has reportedly stated that Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan did not break any surrogacy laws in the country.

An investigation set up by the Tamil Nadu government has said that Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan have not broken any laws governing surrogacy in India. The actor-director couple became parents to twin boys--Uyir and Ulagham--via surrogacy earlier this month, following which many raised doubts about the legality of it all, since commercial surrogacy was banned in India in January. However, the state government’s team has found no wrongdoing on their part, as per reports.

Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan with their twins.

The Tamil Nadu government had formed a three-member panel appointed by the Health and Family Welfare Department to investigate if there were any irregularities in the surrogacy process of Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan. However, as per multiple reports, the panel submitted their findings on Wednesday, exonerating the couple. The report, however, places the blame on the hospital the facilitated the surrogacy.

“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 panel said, as per a report in The News Minute. The team said that they have not been able to speak to the family doctor so far as they have relocated out of India.

The report states that the surrogate mother entered into an agreement with the couple in November 2021 and the embryo was placed in her in March this year. The twins were born in October. Commercial surrogacy was banned in India after the The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 was passed in December. It came into effect in January 2022. Going by this timeline of events, when Nayanthara and Vignesh began the process, it was legal.

The panel came down heavily on the private hospital that had maintained Nayanthara’s records saying that the recordkeeping was improper, which led to the confusion and controversy. The department has issued a notice to the hospital over the matter.

Nayanthara and Vignesh married in June this year in a private but star-studded ceremony that was attended by the likes of Rajinikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, Vijay Sethupathi, AR Rahman, Suriya, and Anirudh among others. Nayanthara, a popular name in the Tamil and Telugu film industries, will make her Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh in Atlee’s Jawan next year.