Supreme Court asks three search engines to set up body to delete info on sex determination

Section 22 of the PCPNDT Act pertains to prohibition of advertisements relating to pre-natal determination of sex and punishment for contravention. “That apart, the in-house expert body shall on its own understanding delete anything which violates section 22 of the Act and in case there is any doubt, they can communicate with the nodal agency appointed by Union of India and thereafter they will be guided by the nodal agency,” the court said.

During the hearing, the court pulled up the companies saying they know how to make money but do not show respect to the Indian law. “The whole problem is that they (search engines) do not have respect for the law of the country,” the bench observed during the hearing and made it clear that search engines will have to block all such materials which, by any mean, help in
sex determining of foetus and runs counter to the law. Google India said it obeyed the court’s directions.

“We have always been compliant and are supportive of removing paid content based on terms linked to gender selection tests. We have taken additional action to disable auto-complete predictions for relevant terms on our site and show a warning that tells users (that) pre-natal gender screening or testing is illegal in India,” the firm said in its statement.