Mumbai, March 17 -- The Bombay High Court last week stepped in to protect 35 embryos preserved at an In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic in Nashik, which was sealed after its director was arrested in connection with the human egg extraction racket that was busted in Badlapur recently. A division bench of justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri asked the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) to de-seal the clinic every fourth day to replace the liquid nitrogen required to preserve the embryos commissioned by the clinic's patients. The Malti IVF Centre in Nashik was sealed on March 4 after its director, Dr Amol Patil, was arrested last month in connection with the alleged illegal extraction and sale of human eggs from vulnerable women in Badlapur. Patil has been accused of acting as an agent to facilitate illegal surrogate contracts. According to the police, around 20 vulnerable women were allegedly exploited by repeatedly using them as egg donors and selling their eggs for lakhs of rupees, in violation of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, or the ART Act. Patil's wife, Dr Vandana Patil, a gynaecologist who ran the IVF clinic in Nashik with him, had moved the high court against the Maharashtra government and the municipal corporations of Nashik and Thane. This was after the NMC sealed and de-registered the Patils' Nashik clinic, and the TMC searched its Thane office, after the Badlapur police's investigation into the illegal egg donation racket began. In her petition, filed through advocates Ankita Singhania and Amit Karkhanis, Vandana Patil stated that her husband was arrested in a case registered at the Badlapur police station in February. She stated that the clinic had been sealed despite her March 2 reply to the NMC's February 27 notice and her request for a personal hearing. Patil's petition informed the court that there were 35 frozen embryos at the Nashik clinic that required refilling with liquid nitrogen every three days to remain frozen. If liquid nitrogen is not changed regularly, "frozen embryos will get destroyed, resulting in loss of a chance of having a legitimate child for all those 35 patients whose embryos are presently stored" at the clinic, the petition stated. Advocate Rohit Sakhdeo, who represented both the Nashik and Thane corporations on the court's request, submitted a communication of March 11 before the court in which the NMC had agreed to de-seal the clinic to allow it to replace the liquid nitrogen. In their order passed on the same day, the judges said this was a "gracious gesture" on the NMC's part. Patil contended that the NMC had no power to seal and de-register the clinic's licence, and urged the court to quash the corporation's March 4 order. The court, however, said that she would have to file an appeal before the state government to challenge the NMC's order. It directed that the appellate authority pass a final order in the case within 45 days of the filing of the appeal. However, in the interim, the court directed the NMC to appoint a team to enable the IVF clinic to replace the liquid nitrogen every fourth day. The court said it would be up to the state government to decide whether the embryos needed to be transferred to another clinic, as it would be "cumbersome" for the NMC to support the replacement of liquid nitrogen over an extended period of time. Patil's petition stated that the clinic, licensed in 2021, had set up an office in Thane mainly to document egg donors, who mostly came from Mumbai and Thane. She said the NMC's action to shut down the Nashik clinic was illegal and pre-emptive, as the police's FIR did not name the clinic or her husband. Amol Patil was arrested after Sulakshana Gadekar, a woman arrested by the Badlapur police, said in her statement to the police that she supplied donors to his clinic, the petition claimed....