Internet search engines — Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google – faced the Supreme Court’s flak on Tuesday for their failure to block sex-determination advertisements hosted on websites.
On Tuesday, the apex court came down heavily on the internet giants who claimed it was impossible to block such content. The Court asked Centre to sit with the search engines and indicate by July 25 on what possible orders could be passed by court to remedy the situation.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi directed the Centre to convene a meeting of technical experts from the Department of Information Technology and the search engine companies within 10 days to explore ways to block such advertisements.
The Bench said, “They (search engines) are patently violating the Indian law and are saying that they cannot do anything. It is not acceptable and this needs to be controlled. They can’t put anything which is against the law of the country.” The observations came while dealing with a PIl filed by social activist Sabu Mathew George who brought material to show how the provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 meant to stop female foeticide was being openly flouted.
The websites hosted content on sex determination tests and this was cited as a major flaw in preventing death of girl children in the country by the PIl petitioner. Advocate Sanjay Parikh appearing for the petitioner said that by an earlier order, the apex court had required all websites to put up a notice on its home page warning against any advertisement or content that violated the PCPNDT Act.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar who represented the Centre said that the advertisements were clear violation of the law but sought time to consult experts from the concerned department. The meeting will be held within the next 10 days following which Centre will present a memorandum to Court on July 25.