The recent developments on the legal status of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in India refer to the Delhi High Court’s processing of a plea against the import of 1988 ban. Imported banned for decades after the government of Rajiv Gandhi had banned it as an offensive to religious sentiments.
However, a recent petition by Sandipan Khan made an argument that the government could not find any official notification confirming the ban, and left its validity into question. Khan filed a Right to Information (RTI) request in 2017 for a copy of this notification, but no department, from Customs upwards, reported finding the document.
On November 5, 2024, after years of futile efforts by the authorities to recover this notice, the Delhi High Court declared that in the absence of any official document, it would presume that the notice is non-existent. It thus went ahead and dismissed the petition as “infructuous,” in light of the loss of vitality of the petition on account of failure of proof of a ban.
This ruling does not exactly permit the importation of the book but indicates that the enforceability of the ban on such imports would depend on the availability of documents. Legal experts are already in a debate of whether it is currently legal to import the book.
Some legal experts argue that if there is no official ban, then the book can be imported, while others suspect it might be too optimistic. Former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur said that technically, there was no ban in place without the notification.
However, he did add that the government could go ahead and issue a fresh notification to re-impose the import restriction if it so wished. Another expert said that the judgement of the court only speaks to the missing notification and doesn’t in any way grant the import rights that the petitioner is seeking.
This case, thus, has a much larger bearing on censorship and the freedom to read in India. It showcases how longstanding prohibitions impact the flow of literature in citizens and how little transparencies characterize judicial processes.
It also questions proper archiving of documents since the disappearance of the notification has made it difficult for the ban to be enforced. This may just attract similar cases wherein such prohibition might challenge bans if no supporting documentation is available.
Meanwhile, controversy over The Satanic Verses remains an open issue. Lacking proper legal clearance for importing the book, public opinion and possible re-issuing of a ban by the government has been an uncertain factor regarding how long the availability of this book will be there in the Indian market. That ambiguity has brought into the prospect of freedom of expression, accountability of the government, and the societal impacts of long-term censorship policies.