This is a representational image (Pic credit: Lexica) NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court ended proceedings on a plea challenging the ban on the import of Salman Rushdie 's controversial novel, The Satanic Verses , after noting that the authorities had failed to produce the 1988 notification on the ban and it must be "presumed that it does not exist". In an order passed on Nov 5, a bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee said that the petition, filed in 2019, was therefore infructuous, and the petitioner would be entitled to take all actions in respect of the book as available in law. Have to assume no ban order exists, and hence, can’t examine its validity, says HC The Rajiv Gandhi govt had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author's book citing law-and-order reasons in 1988.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan had moved court arguing that he was unable to import the book because of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, banning its import into the country in accordance with the Customs Act. He, however, contended that the notification is neither available on any official website nor with any of the authorities concerned. During the course of the court proceedings, the authorities maintained that the notification was untraceable.
The bench observed: "What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated Oct 5, 1988, with which the petitioner is purportedly aggrieved and, in fact, the .
