Delhi High Court Lifts 36-Year-Long Import Ban on Salman Rushdie’s 'The Satanic Verses'

New Delhi, India: The Delhi High Court on Thursday lifted a 36-year-long import ban on Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, ruling that the ban could no longer be enforced due to the government’s inability to locate the official notification that had kept it in place.

The import of The Satanic Verses was banned in India in 1998 under a government-issued notification, following protests from various Muslim groups who claimed the novel was blasphemous. The 1988 book, which sparked global outrage, has long been a lightning rod for controversy, particularly in Islamic communities, for its perceived insults to Islam.

In the latest legal development, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) admitted in court that the original notification issued in 1988 could no longer be found. With no document to back the prohibition, the bench of Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Saurabh Banerjee, on November 5, declared that it could not examine the validity of the ban. As a result, the court disposed of the petition challenging the import ban as “infructuous.”

"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 said in its ruling.

The case was brought before the court in 2019 by Sandipan Khan, who argued that the ban was preventing him from importing the book. Khan pointed out that the notification could not be found on any official government website, nor was it available with relevant authorities. 

The book, which was first published in 1988, has remained a highly contentious work, especially in the wake of protests and calls for its banning following its release. The Indian government, under then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, imposed the ban in response to widespread outrage over allegations of blasphemy, though it remained a subject of legal debate and public discussion for decades.

Following the court's ruling, the novel can now legally be imported into India once more. However, The Satanic Verses remains banned in several other countries due to its controversial themes, including the United Kingdom, Iran, and several Middle Eastern nations.