MUMBAI, Aug. 4 -- The Bombay High Court has directed the National Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Surrogacy Board to consider a plea filed by a Pune resident seeking permission to freeze her eggs without her husband's consent, which is required under the ART Act. A division bench of acting chief justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Gautam Ankhad last week passed the order after additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan said the appropriate authorities would examine the plea if the petitioner filed a proper application. The bench asked ART to decide the matter within three weeks. The court, however, kept the woman's petition pending after her counsel, advocate Sushant Inderjeet Singh, pointed out that she was locked in a legal battle with her husband, and her divorce petition filed in August 2020 was still pending before the family court in Pune. Singh argued that the petitioner was 39 and her fertility levels were declining and if they fell further, she would no longer be able to bear a child. The petitioner got married in April 2016 but was allegedly subjected to mental and physical cruelty, prompting her to leave her husband in June 2020. Apart from filing criminal proceedings against him, she also filed a divorce petition two months later, she submitted. She said she began medical consultations and preparations for the egg-freezing procedure in January 2024. After her doctor advised her to freeze her eggs, she filed a plea before the family court in September 2025, seeking permission to undergo the procedure without her husband, who had refused consent unless she withdrew all legal proceedings against him. The petitioner contended that the statutory framework governing ART mandated spousal consent, and that a woman whose marriage had irretrievably broken down and whose divorce proceedings had remained pending for several years could not be compelled to permanently lose her reproductive ability. The bench found merit in the submission that the husband would never consent while divorce proceedings were underway and posted for August 31....