India ban on Rushdie’s Satanic Verses may ease on legal loophole

DELHI – Salman Rushdie’s controversial 1988 novel The Satanic Verses could become available in India for the first time in decades after a court in Delhi said the government was unable to produce an original notification document that banned imports of the book.

“We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists,” the Delhi High Court said in an order earlier this week in a case brought by a prospective book buyer who questioned India’s ban.

Many Muslims considered Rushdie’s book blasphemous because of its portrayal of Prophet Muhammad. It was banned by several countries, and in 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader issued a “fatwa” death order for the author and his publishers.

India, while mostly Hindu, has the world’s third-largest Muslim population at around 200 million. It blocked imports of the book through a notification passed in 1988. 

Five years ago, a man who wanted to buy the book filed a petition urging an Indian court to examine the correctness of the import ban. During the course of the litigation, none of the authorities was able to produce the original notification. That prompted the court to say it could not examine the validity of the document, which is now presumed to not exist. 

The court ruled that the petitioner is now “entitled to take all actions in respect of the said book as available in law”, which could pave the way for  bringing it to India. BLOOMBERG