Mumbai, June 8: The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), a regulatory body in New Delhi under the Ministry of Information and Technology, on Friday told the Thane police that it was reviewing their proposal for a ban on Google’s popular social networking site orkut.com. Officials from the CERT told the police that no specific time frame for the decision had been set.

Meanwhile the Mumbai Police has written to the CERT asking it to block two forums on Orkut, for derogatory content on Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Thackeray. However, the Mumbai Police are against a blanket ban on the website.

“I have communicated with officers from the CERT in the evening, and they informed me that they were going through details of the objectionable forums, and were reviewing our proposal for a ban. When asked when a decision would be reached, the officers told me that no specific time frame had been set,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kalyan, Anup Kumar of the Thane Police. “We have also sent a notice to the Legal Compliance Cell of Google.com which hosts the site,” he informed.

The Thane Police had asked for a ban on Orkut, following agitations by Shiv Sainiks, who threatened to forcibly prevent people from accessing the site from cyber cafes.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Enforcement, Sanjay Mohite of the Mumbai Police, “Even we have sent letters to the CERT last Monday, asking them to block objectionable forums on Shivaji Maharaj and Bal Thackeray. However, from my experience, such matters take a long time, sometimes around two months. There are several issues like freedom of speech and expression which the CERT considers very seriously before blocking a forum.”

“We have not asked for a complete ban on Orkut in Mumbai, but only for the concerned forums to be blocked,” Mohite stressed. Clearly on the backfoot, after the Sena rampage on the issue, the Thane Police have asked cyber cafe owners to prevent customers from accessing Orkut in their establishments. However, there is no legal provision under which this can be enforced by the police.

“Yes, it is true that we cannot legally prevent anyone from accessing the site. There is no section under the CrPC for this. However, we have asked the cyber cafe owners to prevent people from doing so, as we are concerned about law and order problems that might arise in such a case,” said Kumar.