The Delhi High Court has removed a 36-year-old ban on the import of Salman Rushdie’s contentious novel The Satanic Verses, referencing the lack of the initial Customs notification that imposed the ban.
The prohibition, implemented in 1988 during the tenure of then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was a reaction to demonstrations by Muslim organisations that claimed the book was offensive to Islam. On November 5, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs notified the court that it was unable to find the notification concerning the import restriction.
In a decision made on Thursday, Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee declared that in the absence of the notification on file, the court was left with no option but to presume that it was nonexistent. The ruling came after a petition by Sandipan Khan, submitted in 2019, contesting the import ban, which he claimed had stopped him from acquiring a copy of the book.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan contended in court that he could not import the book due to a notification released by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, prohibiting its import under the Customs Act; however, this notification was not found on any official website or with any relevant authorities.
Khan highlighted that there was no formal documentation of the ban found on government websites or with any officials, even though the Ministry of Home Affairs acknowledged that it had initially prohibited the book following his Right to Information inquiry.
The court's ruling has effectively removed the long-standing prohibition on importing The Satanic Verses into India, allowing the book's legal entry into the country for the first time in over thirty years.
