By PC Bureau
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has closed a long-standing petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s 1988 decision to ban the import of Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, citing the failure of authorities to produce the original ban notification. The court’s move effectively suggests that the document may no longer exist.
In a judgment passed on November 5, a bench led by Justice Rekha Palli declared the petition “infructuous,” freeing the petitioner, Sandipan Khan, to pursue legal options related to the book’s import. Filed in 2019, Khan’s case argued that the ban notification—originally issued on October 5, 1988, by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Customs Act—was unavailable through any official channel, leaving him unable to import the novel.
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“What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated 05.10.1988,” the bench, which included Justice Saurabh Banerjee, observed, noting that even the originating authority was unable to locate the document. “We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists,” the court concluded.
The Centre initially imposed the ban due to global backlash from Muslim communities who regarded the book as blasphemous. Khan’s petition also sought a court directive to lift any other restrictions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1988 and to allow him to import the novel through publishers or international e-commerce sites.
This judgment potentially signals the end of a legal impasse around The Satanic Verses, a title long shrouded in controversy since the ban, yet untraceable in official records.
