CAN’T BAN WEB CONTENT GIVING INFO ON MEDICAL TOURISM: SC

Online content related to medical tourism in India can not be blocked unless it violates local law that bans pre-natal sex determination tests (PNDT), the Supreme Court said on Thurs day striking a note of caution against any blanket ban on such information.

“People’s right to know, to be informed and gain wisdom from internet cannot be curtailed,” a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said while hearing a 2008 public interest litigation (PIL) complaining that internet search engines run by various multinational corporations like Microsoft, Yahoo and Google were soliciting advertisements promoting sex-selection tests.

“We may further add that freedom of expression included the right to be informed,” the bench replied to the petitioner’s counsel, who insisted the compa nies failed to follow an earlier SC verdict that banned such ads.

Parekh argued that on typing the words medical tourism, sev eral links containing material related to such tests appeared To this the bench said the law did not intend to restrict one’s right to know. “If somebody intends to search for medical tourism in India he or she is entitled to search as long as the content does not frustrate or defeat the restriction postulated under the Act,” the bench told Parekh.

The court also clarified it was only for the nodal officers appointed by the Centre and state governments under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 to ask the intermediaries to remove objectionable content.

The counsel for the compa nies, Sanjay Parekh, also informed the court that they had in-house experts to tackle these complaints.