Police have court orders to block 316 obscene sites, govt tells HC

Bombay HC acted on a PIL that raised concerns about websites that provide online escort services

The cyber cell of the Mumbai police has orders from a magistrate court to block 316 websites with ‘obscene’ content, the Bombay high court was told on Wednesday. Most of these websites purportedly offer escort services.

Government pleader Poornima Kantharia told the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Prakash Naik that the matter has been referred to the group coordinator (cyber law) at the centre’s department of electronics and information technology for further action.

Kantharia was responding to a query by the court on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mumbai resident Ali Ahmed Siddique. The PIL raised concerns about websites that provide online escort services and asked that they be blocked.

Kantharia told the court that according to an affidavit filed by the police’s social service branch, the domain registrar and web hosting site GoDaddy.com has also been asked to block urgently 174 websites found to be providing ‘high-class escort services’.

The high court directed Kantaria to file an affidavit disclosing what action has been taken against the offending websites, before scheduling the next hearing for June.