Delhi High Court lifts import ban on Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses after ban notification goes missing

The Delhi High Court recently said the Customs notification banning the import of author Salman Rushdie's polemical book ‘The Satanic Verses’ has to be presumed to be non-existent [Sandipan Khan vs. The Chairman Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs].

This was after the Central Board Of Indirect Taxes & Customs told the Court that the 1988 notification banning the book's import could no longer be traced.

In 1988, the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had banned the book's import on the basis of complaints from members of Muslim community that the book was blasphemous towards the Islamic faith.

Years later, former Union minister K Natwar Singh defended the decision as taken purely for law and order reasons.

Since the authorities failed to produce the notification, the bench of Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Saurabh Banerjee on November 5 declined to go into the validity of the ban in a petition challenging the same.

“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 Court observed.

The notification was challenged by one Sandipan Khan in 2019.

He told the Court that he was unable to import the book on account of it being banned. However, he said the notification was neither available on any of the official website nor is it available with any of the authorities.

In a response under the Right to Information Act to Khan, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed that the book was banned.

With the Court holding the notification to be non-existent on the basis of presumption, Khan has effectively been allowed to import the book into India.

“The petitioner will, therefore, be entitled to take all actions in respect of the said book as available in law,” the Bench ordered.

This decision of the High Court effectively lifts the 36-year long ban on the import of the book. Interestingly, the officer who prepared the notification himself had expressed helplessness in producing a copy of it.

The Union government itself had washed its hands off the case. The MHA asked the Customs department to defend the petition on their behalf as well, as per the order.

Advocates Uddyam Mukherjee and Swapnil Pattanayak appeared for the petitioner.

Sr. Standing Counsel Anurag Ojha with advocates Subham Kumar, Central Government Standing Counsel Ravi Prakash and advocates Taha Yasin and Yasharth appeared for the government.

[Read Order]