Supreme
Court on Wednesday, as an interim measure, directed search engines like Google
India, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt Ltd not to advertise
or sponsor any advertisement which would violate Section 22 of the PCPNDT Act, 1994.
The Court further asked them to withdraw any advertisements already put up on
the search engines.
The Court also
directed the search engines to upload on their policy page and the terms of
service page its order that they would not advertise or sponsor any
advertisement which violated Section 22 of Prohibition of advertisement
relating to pre-natal determination of sex (PC-PNDT) Act. "As an interim measure, it is directed,
the respondents, namely, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft shall not advertise or
sponsor any advertisement which would violate Section 22 of the PC-PNDT Act,
1994," a Bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla
C Pant said.
If any advertisement
existed on any search engine, "the same shall be withdrawn forthwith by
the respondents," it said. The order was passed after Google and
Microsoft argued that they were not advertising anything which violated the PC-PNDT
Act or any Indian law. They also said it was not clear from the
government's affidavit the nature of information sought as it has only stated
that the search engines should be asked to provide or submit details of
measures adopted by them to block or filter keywords and sponsored links
violative of PC-PNDT Act and amendments.
The Bench also accepted
on record an additional affidavit filed on behalf of the Centre which said the
government could block or filter "the presentation of any kind of thing that
relates to sex selection and eventual abortion, if the URL and the I.P.
addresses are given along with other information by the respondents, regard
being had to the key words, namely,“pre-natal diagnostic tests for selection of
sex before or after conception, pre-natal conception test, pre-natal
diagnostic, pre-natal foetoscopy for sex selection, pre-natal ultrasonography for
sex selection, sex selection procedure, sex selection technique, sex selection
test, sex selection administration, sex selection prescription, sex selection
services, sex selection management, sex selection process, sex selection
conduct, pre-natal image scanning for sex selection, pre-natal diagnostic procedure
for sex selection, sex determination using scanner, sex determination using
machines, sex determination using equipment, scientific sex determination and
sex selection”
Therefore, the exact URL needs to be
provided by the concerned agencies for blocking or filtering at the Internet
Gateways, said the Solicitor General, Ranjit
Kumar, appearing for the Centre.
The Apex court said
matters relating to the total blocking of the items suggested by the government
and providing the URL and IP addresses by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft would be
taken up on February 11.
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