The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to take steps to curb illegal sex rackets that are being run by giving advertisements in the newspapers and also contact numbers available on porn websites.

Government pleader Poornima Kantharia informed the court that the state government had written to the Central government requesting it to block the websites because their servers are located in foreign countries.

Ms Kantharia also informed the division bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka that the bank accounts in which payments are received on behalf of these websites and advertisements are also foreign and hence it is seeking help from the Centre.

“This needs to be stopped,” observed the bench while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Ali Ahmed Siddique, who through his lawyer Debashish Mitra, has claimed that often there are advertisements in newspapers and websites for call girls, posing as escort services.

Mr Siddique has requested the court to direct the government to block all such websites and also take action against persons giving advertisements in newspapers with the help of the contact numbers provided.

On this Ms Kantharia informed the court that the government was taking the help of the cyber cell, social service branch of the Mumbai police as well as of ‘Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’, a government organisation under the ministry of communication and information technology to take action against such illegal businesses.

The bench asked the government to file an affidavit on what the Union government has to say about the letter written by state.

The court posted the petition for further hearing on April 7, observing, “This has to be done systematically.”