The Delhi High Court has officially lifted the 36-year-old ban on importing Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel “The Satanic Verses”, citing the lack of an original notification enforcing the restriction.
The ban, which was imposed in 1988 under then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was a response to protests from Muslim groups, who deemed the book blasphemous. However, in a significant ruling on November 5, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs informed the court that it could no longer locate the notification that had originally enacted the ban.
In their ruling, Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee stated that without the official notification on record, they were compelled to assume it did not exist. The case stemmed from a petition filed by Sandipan Khan in 2019, who challenged the import ban and argued it hindered his ability to acquire a copy of the book.
Khan had highlighted the absence of any official record of the ban on government websites or with relevant authorities, even though the Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed it had initially imposed the ban after a Right to Information request.
With the court’s decision, the ban on importing “The Satanic Verses” into India has been effectively lifted, allowing the book’s legal entry into the country for the first time in over three decades.