The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that a notification banning the import of writer Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses must be presumed to be non-existent.
The High Court disposed of a petition challenging the purported notification issued under the Customs Act.
This came after the Central Board Of Indirect Taxes and Customs told the court that the purported directive from 1988 banning the import of the book could not be traced. As the authorities could not produce the order, a bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee declined to examine whether the ban was valid.
“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 High Court said.
The court said that the petitioner would be “entitled to take all actions in respect of the said book as available in law”. The order paves the way for allowing the import of the book into India.
The petition was filed by a man named Sandipan Khan, who demanded that he should be allowed to import the novel.
Khan’s lawyer highlighted that the notification could not be found on any government website or in official records, rendering verification impossible.
To bolster Khan’s case, his legal team cited a 2017 response to a Right to Information request, which confirmed the book’s banned status but did not include the actual notification. They also referenced a 2022 order from a different bench that noted the authorities’ inability to locate the document.
The Satanic Verses, which deals with themes of religion, identity and cultural dislocation, incited significant backlash from many in the Muslim community on its release, ostensibly due to its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad and aspects of Islamic history.
The narrative includes a reference to an often-debated event among Islamic scholars in which Muhammad is portrayed as temporarily recognising certain pagan deities.
Other than India, the book was banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Muslim-dominated countries.
In February 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the former Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa – a ruling under Islamic law – calling for Salman Rushdie’s death and labelling his book as blasphemous.
Rushdie was forced into hiding for nearly a decade under the protection of the British authorities due to threats to his life.
In August 2022, the novelist was assaulted while preparing to give a lecture in New York. The attack was tied to the enduring anger over the perceived blasphemy in his novel.
The assailant, Hadi Matar, was reportedly influenced by religious extremism and supported Khomeini’s fatwa. Rushdie sustained serious injuries in the attack, losing one eye.
Also read: The spectre of hurt religious sentiments: On the courage and necessity of Salman Rushdie
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