After the judgement of the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex, a number of parents have approached private detective agencies to spy on the sexual preferences of their children.

The trend, which was going on covertly for past many years, has seen a significant increase especially after the court verdict, detective agencies say.

"We have been approached by parents to help them in finding their children's sexual orientation. Our detectives spy on them to find out whether their wards are homosexuals or lesbians," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Indian Detective Agency.

Parents are even taking the help of sleuths to spy on school going children, he said.

Singh said it has become one of the most important features of premarital information as parents want to know the sexual choice of their would be son-in-law or daughter-in-law.

He said detective agencies are providing special training to sleuths to carry out such operations and charge any amount from Rs 20,000 to Rs 80,000 depending on the case.

"There are chances of a boy or girl developing attraction towards a person of the same sex. But as far as the spying on children is concerned, I would say that it should be done in strict confidence," said Punita Sharma, a working parent.

Vindhyachal Pandey, a senior manager with a private firm, said, "There is no problem if parents carry out such checks with the help of detectives to clear their doubts."

When asked, Hemant K Batra, an advocate, said, "Finding out children's sexual inclination is alright so long it does not intrude into their privacy."