India’s National Newspaper reports that India’s Supreme Court is suing Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for allowing “sex selection” ads. India has a law that does not allow the sale or advertisement of services that allow people to pick the sex of their unborn child. India has virtually stopped all advertisements on TV, newsprint and radio, and are now trying to ban the ads online.

India’s “The Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act” disallows ads for services or products that aid in the selection of an unborn child’s sex. Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M. Panchal filed a notice on a “writ petition filed by Dr. Sabu Mathew George,” said the Hindu paper. The Doctor wants to sue the three companies for punitive and deterrent action.

Dr. George told IDG News:

These companies are making money by breaking Indian laws.

In other legal news, Google ‘Ransoming’ Customers Searching For Trademarked Brands, Lawsuit Claims from InformationWeek reports on the third Google lawsuit for fraud and unfair business practices for selling ads on low-quality Web pages. I am honestly tired of covering these stories, so feel free to read it at InformationWeek. Also, Gary Price emailed me a link to the PDF of the filinghere.

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Legal: Censorship | Legal: General | Microsoft: Business Issues | Search Ads: General | Yahoo: Legal

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz