The Apex Court on Thursday sought
the assistance of Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar aided by a competent officer
in the Department of Information Technology, in a writ petition
seeking blocking of websites advertising pre-natal sex determination, taking
into account the technical issues involved in the case.
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| (The affidavit filed by the Centre, reflects a kind of helplessness on the part of the said deponent" said the Supreme Court on Thursday) |
The Bench comprising of Justices Dipak Misra and U.U. Lalit, was considering the plea of the
petitioner, Sabu George through his Counsel Mr. Sanjay Parikh that “despite
the legal prohibition, the respondents, namely, Google India, Yahoo India and
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd., are still getting things advertised in
violation of the legal provisions contained in the Pre-conception and Pre-natal
Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, as amended from
time to time.”
Even as the private respondents in the
matter sought time to file their respective replies to the rejoinder filed by
the petitioner, the Bench, before considering their request for grant of time, referred
to the affidavit filed in 2010 by the Union Government to the effect that
blocking sites advertising prenatal sex determination "may not be desirable" as they
“provide good content for medical education”.
The relevant portion of the affidavit filed
by the Group Coordinator, Cyber Laws Formulation and Enforcement Division,
Government of India, Department of Information Technology on 16.08.2010 reads as
follows: “The pre-natal sex determination
is an offence in India under PC & PNDT Act. However, it may not be an
offence in other countries. The information published on the websites is generally
aimed at for wider, world wide dissemination and caters to the needs to many countries
and may not be for the Indian citizens. Also, most of these websites are hosted
outside the country. Blocking of such sites advertising pre-natal sex
determinaton may not be feasible due to their hosting outside the
country. Moreover, some of the websites provide good content for medical education
and therefore blocking of such websites may not be desirable.”
Coming down heavily on the affidavit filed
by the Union Government, the Bench observed that “it reflects a kind of helplessness on the part of the said deponent.”
Responding to the affidavit filed by the
Centre, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that other countries have been able to
control such advertisements, which violate the laws of their countries by way
of entering into certain kind of agreement, developing technical tools and
issuing appropriate directions.
The Supreme Court observed that
“an
effort has to be made to see that nothing contrary to laws of this country are advertised
or shown on these websites” But taking into account the technical
issues involved, The Bench comprising of requested
the Solicitor General, Mr. Ranjit Kumar, to assist the Court on
the next hearing date, being assisted by a competent officer of the Department
of Information and Technology.
The
Bench listed the matter on December 15 for further consideration and permitted
the private respondents no. 3 to 5 in the case to file their replies within a
week.
The order passed by the Apex Court in the above case can be accessed in full here
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