Microsoft, Google and Yahoo were issued notices by India"s Supreme Court on Wednesday, following a complaint that they were promoting techniques and products for the selection of an unborn child"s sex through advertising and links on their search engines. There is a deliberate attempt by these companies to target Indian users with advertisements that claim to help in the selection of a child"s sex, said Sabu Mathew George, the petitioner in the case, in a telephone interview on Thursday.
The three companies were unavailable for comment, despite repeated phone calls to Yahoo in Bangalore, Google in Hyderabad and Microsoft in Delhi. The advertisement of products and techniques to aid in the selection of an unborn child"s sex is an offense under India"s "The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act". In India, at least 900,000 unborn girls die each year through feticide, said George who is a social activist associated with organizations fighting for the rights of young girls in India.