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In the aftermath of the Mumbai atrocity, the Times of India reports that Amit Karkhanis, a Mumbai advocate, has approached the Bombay High Court seeking a ban on Google Earth, Wikimapia and other sites not blessed by Indian security officials.

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In a statement to the court, Karkhanis says the website gives users ‘minute details’ and provides photographs, as well as ‘extremely accurate navigational coordinates’. ‘Terrorists are increasingly relying on sophisticated technology and internet services including Google Earth, maps and satellite phones for their horrible plans,’ he said.

His petition says that Google Earth is against the objective of the National Security Act. It calls on the government to use exercise its right to prevent acts that are prejudicial to the nation's security.

Karkhanis has used Public Interest Litigation, which under Indian law means litigation for the protection of public interest. It is litigation introduced in a court of law, not by the aggrieved party but by the court itself or any other private party. It is not necessary that the person who is the victim of the violation should personally approach the court.

If successful, the suit will stymie efforts to free up map data in India. The country's National Mapping Policy of 2005 allows only the Survey of India to prepare maps in India in association with the National Remote Sensing Centre.

That legislation provided two series of topographic maps, one civilian and one military. They were identical, except that the civilian series had sensitive sites appropriately removed or distorted in some way.

In his petition to the court, Kahkanis says that Google Earth provides free internet satellite pictures to an individual with 'absolutely no control to prevent misuse or limit access’ to sensitive places such as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, naval dockyards or nuclear establishments.

The advocate said the premium edition with a subscription of US$400 allowed even real-time maps and updates to be accessed. Even pictures of the ongoing construction of the Worli-Bandra Sealink were available on the site, Karkhanis noted.

The PIL calls on the government to ‘disclose all the steps it has taken to ensure that pictures and images available on Google Earth are not misused by terror agents. ‘Pending the PIL, the high court must direct the site to blur images of sensitive locations,’ he said.

While it appears that the terrorists in Mumbai did use Google Maps, Karhkais does not say that a lack of good map data would have prevented the attacks. Nor does he explain how Google Earth can be used to obtain real-time imagery. Most of the imagery sourced by Google and Microsoft for their internet globes is of unknown provenance, but is generally several years old.

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