“Have To Presume It Does Not Exist”: Court On Order Banning Import Of ‘The Satanic Verses’

The Delhi High Court has closed the proceedings on a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s decision to ban the import of Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, saying since authorities have failed to produce the relevant notification, it has to be presumed that it does not exist.

In an order passed on November 5, a bench headed by Justice Rekha Palli observed that the petition, which was pending since 2019, was therefore infructuous and the petitioner would be entitled to take all actions in respect of the book as available in law.

The Centre banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author’s “The Satanic Verses” for law-and-order reasons in 1988, after Muslims across the world viewed it as blasphemous.

Petitioner Sandipan Khan had argued in court that he was unable to import the book on account of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, banning its import into the country in accordance with the Customs Act, but the same was neither available on any official website nor with any of the authorities concerned.

“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 a direction 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.