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Most new parents expect to take their baby home after a few days but a German couple, Jan Balaz and Susan Lohle, are still waiting after more than two years.

Their twin sons, Nikolas and Leonard, have been trapped in citizenship limbo ever since an Indian surrogate mother gave birth to them in February 2008.

The boys were refused passports by their parents' homeland because German nationality is determined by the birth mother.

That left the slow-moving Indian judicial system to wrestle with their citizenship status. The case has now reached the country's highest court.

Lawyers say a Supreme Court hearing in New Delhi on Monday could be crucial in deciding whether Mr Balaz and Ms Lohle will finally be allowed to take the twins back to Germany.

India's reproductive tourism industry is booming thanks to low-cost surrogate mothers, inexpensive medical services and lax regulation.

It is likely that hundreds of infertile couples from the West hire Indian surrogates each year. But Nikolas and Leonard show that things can go badly wrong.

Another heartbreaking Indian surrogacy controversy, this time involving...