KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an interim order directing the bodies involved in rendering surrogacy service to halt it with immediate effect.

A single bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha directed the bodies making a business through the surrogacy to stop the service until  further verdict, according to SC Spokesperson Nahakul Subedi.

The country does not have a law regarding surrogacy, but its practice is mushrooming in the recent years through an illegal channel.

A writ was filed at the SC by advocate Pushpa Raj Pandey on August 23, seeking an end to the illegal practices of surrogacy. The Secretariat of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Health and Population, Grande City Clinic and Diagnostic Center, Om Hospital and Research Center and Venus Hospital have been named as the defendants.

The writ argued that foreign agencies arranging a woman ready for becoming a surrogate mother receive Rs 10 million from a client and provides Rs 4 million while the surrogate mother herself is paid only a small portion of the amount or just Rs 300,000- 400,000.