The Calcutta High Court declared that only a widow has the right over her dead husband's sperm and ruled out the plea of a man seeking the right to collect his son's sperm, which has been preserved in Delhi sperm bank.

Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya dismissed the plea on January 19 and said that the petitioner does not have any fundamental right to permission for collecting the preserved sperm as he was the father to his dead son.

Justice Bhattacharyya saidt, "The father-son relationship of the petitioner and the deceased does not entail any such right of the petitioner to the progeny of his son."

The sperm of the dead man was preserved at a hospital in Delhi since he was married when he died. The court said that apart from the person who died, his wife has all the right over it.

According to the petitioner that his son died of Thalassemia and has preserved his sperm at a hospital for future use. The hospital wrote to the father in 2019 saying “that the further usage of sperm, that is, for providing pregnancy to the donor's wife, donation to someone else or discarding, can be decided only after the permission of the patient's wife."

After receiving such intimation by the hospital, the father of the deceased urged the woman to allow him for collecting the sperm, but it is said that she had refused to acknowledge the receipt of communication.