The Delhi High Court has concluded hearings on a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s purported 1988 decision to prohibit the import of Salman Rushdie’s novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’, due to its “contentious nature”. The court noted that the authorities were unable to present the official notification supporting the ban, leading it to assume the document may not exist, reported news agency PTI.
In an order dated November 5, a division bench of Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Saurabh Banerjee observed that the long-standing petition, filed in 2019, had become irrelevant. The petitioner is therefore free to pursue any legally permissible actions concerning the book.
“In the light of the aforesaid circumstances, we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine the validity thereof and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous,” the HC was quoted as saying by legal news website Live Law.
Originally, the Government imposed the import ban on Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988, citing concerns over potential law-and-order issues given the book’s widespread condemnation as blasphemous by Muslim communities globally.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan argued that he faced obstacles in importing the book due to a 1988 notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Customs Act. However, he highlighted that this notification could not be found on official portals or through the responsible authorities.
The bench stated, “Since none of the respondents has been able to produce the notification dated October 5, 1988, which the petitioner claims to be affected by, and given that even the issuing authority cannot locate it, we must presume that it does not exist.”
In light of these findings, the court decided it had no choice but to consider the petition nullified. The court also dismissed related orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs issued in 1988, which the petitioner had sought to overturn, including a request for permission to import the book via publishers or international e-commerce platforms.
During the proceedings, government representatives informed the court that the notification could not be located and thus could not be provided.
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