NNWN/ New Delhi, 2017-12-13

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government to take steps to check the fall in sex ratio against the girl child. The apex court's concern is valid as the issue has always been a concern for the governments and health experts. Expressing concern over the falling sex ratio against the girl child, the top court called for the "constructive solution" for arresting the trend of falling sex ratio. The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said that the nodal agency and other technical experts will draw a mechanism to curb the online display of sex determination techniques."We are constrained to say so, as some people are guided by exposure to the internet," Chief Justice Misra said in the order.

The top court's order came on the matter moved by petitioner Sabu Mathew George, who said that despite several orders having been passed in the past to block sex determination techniques on the internet, these have not achieved desired results. The court however directed the nodal agency and the technical expert to find a mechanism for taking appropriate steps so that the mandate of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PC&PNDTAAct) is not violated. The court said that mechanism would be finalised after discussion with the representatives of the search engines - Microsoft, Google and Yahoo- and that of the petitioner as it disposed off the petition of George who had knocked the doors of the top court in 2008 seeking to block online information on sex determination techniques.

George's counsel Sanjay Parikh told the court that despite the setting up of the nodal agency by the Centre, it has not been effective in stopping the offending material being displayed on the internet and that the search engines were not removing the objectionable material on their own. However, Additional Solicitor General Pinki Anand told the court that on receiving a complaint, the nodal agency takes steps and interacts with the representatives of search engines and objectionable materials are removed.

The counsel appearing for the search engines said that it was difficult for them to remove the objectionable material on their own without a complaint as there are several permutations and combinations available for search.

George had moved the top court seeking curbs on advertisement commercially promoting sex determination techniques/kits and other related things which have contributed to eschewed sex ratio.