The Centre on Friday expressed its inability to the Supreme Court on blocking pornographic sites in the country. "There are around four crore websites and when we block one, a new one comes along," the government is reported to have told the apex court.

With internet servers located abroad, the government said it was hard to exercise control over them. The Centre has decided to form a panel to look into the issue.

"Law, technology and governance have to be synthesised to control pornographic materials on the Internet," Chief Justice of India R M Lodha told the Centre. The next hearing in the case is scheduled after six weeks.

A PIL was filed last year in Supreme Court demanding a ban on child pornography and blocking of adult porn sites in India.

Referring to the Delhi gangrape of December 2012 when the accused had allegedly watched porn on their phones before assaulting a medical student, the petition claimed that pornography triggered crimes against women in India.