Sex Determination: Despite The Court Order &Existence Of Nodal Agency, Several Ads Still Available, Says Petitioner

The Supreme Court has sought petitioner Sabu Mathew's suggestions as how the nodal agency, set up by the Centre following apex court's order, can effectively work to prevent objectionable advertisements of sex determination of unborn baby from being published on various websites.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Mathew's counsel to file by November 24.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted that between February 18 and 26, the agency got seven complaints and they were forwarded to the website for action through their in-house mechanism.

The Solicitor also told the court that it is not possible on part of government officials to monitor the vast internet sites to find out the objectionable materials relating to ads for sex determination of unborn child.

Internet giant Microsoft said it has not received any complaint so far.

However, Google informed the court that whenever complaints relating to objectionable materials came to it, they removed those materials.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Sanjay Parekh submitted that despite the court order and existence of nodal agency, several advertisements still exist on Google site and YouTube.

The nodal agency has no power to take suo motu cognisance of the complaints, he said.

The court asked Parekh instead of bringing it to the court, he should taken them up nodal agency. He was also asked to place his suggestions by next date of hearing.

The court was hearing Mathew's PIL seeking the court’s intervention in view of a slump in the number of female children in the country.

He alleged that a number of ads on various websites for pre-natal sex determination were violative of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.

Under the Act, pre-natal sex determination is banned.