NEW DELHI: Warning that the declining number of girl child was a “disastrous signal for mankind”, Supreme Court today directed search engines — Google, Yahoo and Microsoft — to set up in-house expert bodies “forthwith” to ensure deletion of materials which went against Indian laws prohibiting pre-natal sex determination.
Expressing concern over the declining sex ratio, the apex court, however, assured the Indian arms of the multinational cyber giants that it would not intiate any contempt proceedings against them as the idea was to make them “responsive” to the local laws and concerns.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said in case of any doubt, the in-house expert bodies of these firms may communicate with the nodal agency appointed by the Centre for guidance and necessary action.
“We reiterate our directions dated September 19, 2016 and further add that respondents number 3 to 5 (Google India Pvt Ltd, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt Ltd) shall appoint an in-house expert body which shall take steps if any words or key words that is shown on internet and which has the potential to go counter to section 22 of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 shall be deleted forthwith,” the bench said. (AGENCIES)
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