Mumbai: Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private Limited, is facing legal charges over the way it does business in the country.

Google is facing defamation charges from a Mumbai-based firm, Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects, for hosting a series of articles on its blog site that are effectively a ''hate'' campaign against the company's mines in Mozambique.

Additionally, the Supreme Court of India has sent notices to Google India on a petition seeking to block its search engine from promoting sex-selection kits. The same notice has also been sent to two other search companies and Google's competitors, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation (I) Private Limited.

In the defamation suit by Gremach, the company said an entire series of articles titled ''Toxic Writer'' were posted on Google's blogging site between January and February 2008. Gremach had acquired a 75 per cent stake in 11 coal mining licences in the African nation of Mozambique, in September 2007.

The articles posted could be best described as a hate campaign against the company. Reports suggest that the company first complained to the police, whose investigations came to a grinding halt when Google India refused to cooperate.

Thereafter, the company moved the Bombay high Court against Google India, asking for information about the blogger.

The Bombay High Court had reportedly ordered the blog to be taken down on 26 February, and has issued an interim order asking Google to disclosing the blogger's identity.

The outcome of the case is likely to have far-reaching implications in the cyber law environment in India, as it is reported to be the first time a blogging company has been sued in the country. Indian courts would now decide whether Google will have to reveal the blogger's identity.

Globally, the only precedent of a blogger's identity being revealed comes from a 2006 accusation by human rights activists against Yahoo! for providing information to Chinese authorities about bloggers posting 'anti-China' content. They were later reported to have been jailed.

In the other lawsuit, a petition filed by Thiruvananthapuram resident SG Mathew has sought a directive to stop all forms of advertising promoting sex-selection kits or such technologies on websites, pursuant to which the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Google India, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation India to block their search engines from promoting sex-selection kits.

In India, the promotion or sale of such kits is against the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994. Prenatal gender determination tests of any kind or any such advertising is punishable with a jail term of three years and a fine of up to Rs10,000.

Earlier, a non-government organisation, the Voluntary Health Association of Punjab has brought to the court's attention the availability of sex-determination kits online, and provided information on the working of these kits.