German national moves court against passport office in Ahmedabad

Jan Balaz, a German national, has filed a plea to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in the surrogate child citizenship case.

The move comes after the RPO failed to return the passport of Balaz’s twin boys, born through a surrogate mother. The case will come up for hearing on Wednesday. Last week, a bench headed by chief justice KS Radhakrishnan had ruled that the children born through an Indian surrogate mother should be considered as Indian citizens and are entitled to get a passport as Indian nationals. The bench had also ordered the RPO to return the passport of Balaz's twin boys.

Meanwhile in the application filed before the high court through his counsel DC Dave, Balaz has claimed that he had approached the passport office following the high court order, but the RPO has not returned the boys' passport for reasons best known to them.

Balaz further stated that his wife's visa will expire on November 26 and her presence is necessary as the airline, which will fly them to Germany, does not allow a child to travel without two adults.