The Maharashtra government has set up an expert panel to prepare guidelines for surrogacy centres in the state until the Regulation of Surrogacy Bill, 2016 is passed by Parliament.

A Government Resolution (GR) issued on July 3 said the seven-member expert panel should examine guidelines laid down by the Indian Council of Medical Research on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), and prepare a set of regulations to implement them in the state. The committee has been asked to submit its report within three months.

The move comes after a woman complained to the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in April that her husband, a father of two daughters, wanted a son and approached a private hospital claiming he was single and used the surrogacy method to beget another child.

The government has directed the child rights panel to study details of the woman's case. The GR states that the guidelines of the expert panel will be followed until the Regulation of Surrogacy Bill-2016 is passed by Parliament, which can then be implemented. The committee will draft guidelines on registration of ART clinics, hospitals, surrogate mothers and couples opting for surrogacy, regulation of babies born through the method and their care, and setting up grievance cells at the divisional headquarters level, it says. The committee members include health and education officials.