The worlds 3 biggest search engines, Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft are about to be caught up in a legal battle with one of the world’s biggest countries, India.

India’s National Newspaper, The Hindu, has reported that India’s Supreme Court issued notices to Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft over the promotion of “sex selection techniques” in its online advertising.

The petition claims that the search engines are in violation of the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act, which forbids the sale or advertisement of services that allow parents to pick the sex of their unborn child.

The petitioner of the case, Sabu Mathew George told IDG News Service that “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.”

“As activists were able to effectively stop sex selection advertising in the print medium, now Indian and foreign advertisers have moved to the Internet.” George said. “Unlike the print medium, Internet search engines allow for very targeted advertising.”

Surely, though it should be those that actually purchased the advertising that should be held accountable. Are Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft simply easy and high profile targets to go after? Let us know you thoughts by leaving a comment below.