New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, search engine websites, from advertising or sponsoring any advertisement relating to sex determination of foetus which would violate the provisions of Preconception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Tests Act.

Giving this interim direction, a bench of justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant said, “If any advertisement is there on any search engine, the same shall be withdrawn forthwith by the respondent websites.”

The bench passed this order on a writ petition filed by social activist Sabu Mathew George seeking a direction to the Centre to ban such advertisements. Accepting the submissions of counsel Sanjay Parikh, appearing for the petitioner, the bench directed that this order be put immediately on the policy page as also on the page containing “terms and conditions of service” by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

The counsel had argued that the practice of eliminating female foetus by the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques across the country had led to the decline in the female child ratio and this should be put an end by banning such advertisements.

Earlier on behalf of the Centre, solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar submitted that the Union government could stop the presentation of any kind of thing that relates to sex selection and eventual abortion, if the URL and the I.P. addresses were given along with other information had the key words, “pre-natal diagnostic tests for selection of sex before or after conception, pre-natal conception test, pre-natal diagnostic, pre-natal foetoscopy for sex selection, pre-natal ultrasonography for sex selection, sex selection procedure.”

The counsel for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft argued that they were not breaking any laws.