Centre not blocking websites promoting sex selection: SC told

The Supreme Court was on Monday informed that the Centre was allegedly reluctant to block websites displaying advertisements promoting pre-birth sex determination in violation of the law.

The Supreme Court was on Monday informed that the Centre was allegedly reluctant to block websites displaying advertisements promoting pre-birth sex determination in violation of the law.

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"Even the Centre is saying it is not possible to block the websites," advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for a doctor who has filed a PIL in this regard, submitted before a Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan.

The court was hearing a PIL filed in 2008 seeking a direction to the Ministry of Health and Famly Welfare and the Ministry of Communication and Technology to take steps to stop such advertisements on the ground that it was against the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.

The Court had also issued notices to Microsoft, Google and Yahoo asking them to stop serving advertisements promoting sex selection.

However, when the matter came up for hearing, Parikh, appearing for Kerala-based Sabu Mathew George, said not only has the Centre said that it is not possible to block the websites but the Ministry of Communication and Technology has not yet filed its response to the notice.

He said the Ministry of Health has maitained that promotion of sex determination on the websites was an offence under the PNDT Act and had written a letter to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to take necessary action.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Google, said the company cannot take any action as it is only a search engine. Similar was the stand taken by the counsel for Yahoo.