The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to issue a notice to Google, for alleged spread of hatred about India on its social network service, Orkut.

The order was issued by Justice A P Deshpande and Justice R M Borde on Monday in response to a public interest litigation filed by local advocate Yugant R Marlapalle.

A picture of a burning national tri-colour, bearing an anti-India messsage, has been put on www.orkut.com and a community, 'We hate India', has been created on the site, the petition said.

The petition has also appealed to the government to appoint a 'controller', under the Information Technology Act 2000 to regulate all such communities in operation on the internet.

Orkut is an online community that conects people through a network of friends.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled after six weeks.