Supreme Court passes an interim order directing search engines not to sponsor any advertisement violating the provisions of the Prohibition of advertisement relating to pre-natal determination of sex Act

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If any advertisement existed on any search engine, "the same shall be withdrawn forthwith by the respondents," it said.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.