Costly ambiguities – a gender-based reading of the latest order of the Supreme Court in the Sabu Mathew George v. Union of India case

Amrita Vasudevan and Anita Gurumurthy

In April this year, the Supreme Court of India made an eagerly awaited ruling on Internet intermediary liability. This case dealt with Internet intermediary liability (search engines – Google Microsoft and Yahoo) in two situations: one; for causing advertisements, and two; for causing organic searches, on pre-natal determination or pre-conception selection of sex (PNDPS) to be displayed on their platforms. In India, publishing, distributing or communicating, or causing (emphasis added) to be published, distributed or communicated advertisements on PNDPS is a punishable offense under Section 22 of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act). Continue reading “Costly ambiguities – a gender-based reading of the latest order of the Supreme Court in the Sabu Mathew George v. Union of India case”