Supreme Court orders internet crackdown on foetal gender test adverts

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre to take urgent steps to stop Google, Yahoo and Microsoft from advertising kits for foetal gender determination, and displaying the addresses of foreign clinics that provide assistance in the act, which is an offence in India.

The apex court was acting on a petition filed by Sabu Mathew George, a member of the apex court appointed monitoring committee on the issue.

The plea said such advertisements flooded the internet after the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Technique (PNDT) Act, which came into force in 1994 to crack down on female foeticide, and banned the publication of such ads in the print media.

“An effort has to be made to see that nothing contrary to laws of this country are advertised or shown on these websites.

“For the said purpose, we would like to have assistance from the competent authority from the Department of Information and Technology.

“Be that as it may, a legal solution has to be arrived at,” said a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra.

The court has directed Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to be present in the court on December 15 “along with a competent officer as it involves technical issues”.

The group coordinator, Cyber Laws Formulation and Enforcement Division of the Information Technology Department, in its affidavit said it would be difficult to block these websites as they were hosted outside the country and provided good content for medical education.

The bench, however, rejected the argument, saying “as we understand, the affidavit reflects a kind of helplessness”.

Questioning the Centre’s contention, George’s lawyer submitted that many 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 websites on their part contended they do not violate the laws of India.

“We only provide a corridor and do not have any control over the contents,” they said.

As per latest estimates, around five lakh female foetus are aborted annually.

According to UNICEF, India has lost over one crore girls since 2007 to female foeticide.

Since 1991, 80 per cent Indian districts have recorded an increasingly masculine sex ratio.