The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s 1988 ban on the import of Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel, The Satanic Verses. The court noted that, as the authorities were unable to provide the relevant notification, it must be presumed that it does not exist.
In an order issued on November 5, a bench led by Justice Rekha Palli noted that the petition, pending since 2019, had become infructuous. The court stated that the petitioner remains entitled to pursue any actions regarding the book as permitted by law. In 1988, the import of the book ‘The Satanic Verses’ was banned for an law and order reasons after Muslims across the world called it “blasphemous”.
During the hearing, Petitioner Sandipan Khan argued that he was unable to import the book due to a “ban” notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs but it was not accessible on any official website or available with relevant authorities.
“What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated 05.10.1988 with which the petitioner is purportedly aggrieved and, in fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy of the said notification during the pendency of the present writ petition since its filing way back in 2019,” the bench, also comprising Justice Saurabh Banerjee, observed.
“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,” it concluded.
Besides assailing the ban notification, the petitioner had sought to set aside other related directions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1988.
The petition had also sought directions to enable him to import the book from its publisher or international e-commerce websites.
During the course of the proceedings in the court, authorities had said the notification was untraceable, and therefore, could not be produced.
