NEW DELHI (TIP): Striking a note of caution against any blanket ban on medical tourism-related content available online, the Supreme Court on April 13 said people’s right to know, be informed and gain wisdom from the Internet can’t be curtailed unless the content violated the law against sex-determination law in India.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said 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 intermediaries to take measures for the removal of objectionable content. The intermediaries such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google can’t take any action on their own, it added.

The clarification came from the Bench after senior counsel Harish Salve and Abhishek Manu Singhvi—representing Microsoft and Google—said the intermediaries could take action only on directions from nodal officers, and not on their own volition. The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 5.

The Bench said any online information could not be blocked unless it violated Section 22 of the Act that prohibited advertisements relating to pre-natal determination of sex. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had told the Bench the right to know was a fundamental right that could not be curtailed by banning information on the Internet.

“There is distinction between information and advertisement. A person out of curiosity wants to know or study something. The right to know is a fundamental right and we cannot curtail it… We cannot curtail free search. The right to know is a fundamental right. If we stop information, then we stop knowledge, then we stop thinking…” Rohatgi had said.