Surrogacy case: HC says plaint against Shahrukh unfounded

The Bombay High Court today said the complaint filed by social activist Varsha Deshpande against Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri, accusing them of conducting sex determination of their third child born through surrogacy, was 'unfounded'.
"Prima facie this court is of the opinion that it is an unfounded complaint. I am not saying it is a frivolous complaint but it is unfounded meaning without foundations," Justice Sadhana Jadhav said.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Deshpande for early hearing of the complaint filed by her in a magistrate court seeking action against Shahrukh, Gauri and Jaslok hospital and its doctor under the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act.

Deshpande had sought early hearing on the ground that the Supreme Court said that all cases under the PCPNDT Act should be heard and decided within six months.
The High Court today asked Deshpande's advocate Uday Warunjikar as to what was the source of her information, to which he said a newspaper report dated June 14.
"The newspaper report does not include any statement of the actor couple. Don't you (Deshpande) think you should have put in some more effort to substantiate the complaint before making such sensitive allegations," the court said.

The court also noted that while the newspaper report was of June 14, the child was born on May 27 and prior to that no report or statement was issued that the couple was having a baby boy.

"Respondent 6 and 7 (Shahrukh and Gauri) are affluent people who can afford a daughter...They would not do all this...," Justice Jadhav said.
The court has directed the BMC to file a detailed report along with records before the magistrate court on October 4. "The magistrate shall consider the report before passing an order on October 7 on Deshpande's application seeking verification of records," the court said, posting the petition for further hearing on October 9.
BMC counsel M P S Rao reiterated that the corporation had conducted inquiry into the allegations and has found that everything is in order and nothing is amiss.