{"id":16644,"date":"2024-11-08T08:53:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T08:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/indian-officials-misplace-salman-rushdies-book-ban-order\/"},"modified":"2024-11-08T08:53:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T08:53:20","slug":"indian-officials-misplace-salman-rushdies-book-ban-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/indian-officials-misplace-salman-rushdies-book-ban-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian officials misplace Salman Rushdie’s book ban order"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Salman Rushdie’s outspoken views on Islam have made him a target of extremists<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Is it legal to import Sir Salman Rushdie\u2019s The Satanic Verses in India?<\/p>\n

This question has been puzzling legal experts since the Delhi High Court suggested this week that the notification banning the novel\u2019s import – issued in 1988 – might no longer be valid, as the government couldn’t locate it.<\/p>\n

The Satanic Verses, criticised by some Muslims as blasphemous, was banned in India shortly after its release, sparking protests worldwide. Iran\u2019s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989, calling for Rushdie\u2019s assassination. This forced the Indian-born Booker Prize-winning author into hiding for nearly a decade. <\/p>\n

Although the book remains officially banned in India, some legal experts now believe it could be imported unless the government reaffirms the ban. Others, however, caution that practical obstacles may still exist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ban on the book came under scrutiny after Sandipan Khan, a resident of West Bengal state, tried to buy the book but learnt that it was not published in India nor could it be imported.<\/p>\n

In 2017, he filed a Right to Information (RTI) request for the official notification banning the book\u2019s import, but was sent through a series of departments without finding it. <\/p>\n

In 2019, Khan took the matter to the Delhi High Court, arguing that the ban impacted his freedom to read. <\/p>\n

Over five years, government departments repeatedly failed to produce the notification, despite customs having similar records from as far back as 1968. <\/p>\n

Finally, on 5 November, the court declared it had no option but to \u201cpresume\u201d that no such ban notification exists and therefore couldn\u2019t assess its validity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Writers read Sir Rushdie’s works in New York, a week after he was attacked in 2022<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The case raises a perplexing question: is a notification valid if no copy of it can be found?<\/p>\n

The simple answer is, we don’t know yet. <\/p>\n

The court has not clarified if the book could be accessed in India but advised Mr Khan to pursue any legal options to obtain it. <\/p>\n

Uddyam Mukherjee, Mr Khan\u2019s lawyer, told the BBC that federal departments couldn\u2019t provide a clear answer either, when asked by the court. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have never come across a situation like this,\u201d said Madan Lokur, a former judge of the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n

If the notification is not found then \u201ctechnically no ban exists\u201d and the book can be imported. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the government may pass a fresh notification [banning the book’s import],\u201d Mr Lokur added, since the court has not declared the ban to be unconstitutional, but only said that the notification is presumed to not exist.<\/p>\n

Mr Mukherjee argued that the book could now be imported \u201cas there is no legal impediment\u201d against the book. <\/p>\n

However, some legal experts disagree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copies of The Satanic Verses being burnt in the UK in 1988<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Raju Ramachandran, a senior lawyer, said he found the suggestion a \u201clittle extreme\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that the high court says is that this particular petition has become infructuous [invalid] since the notification could not be found,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has not given the right to the petitioner to import the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior lawyer Sanjay Hegde said the book could have been published in India if \u201csomeone was brave enough to print it\u201d as only its import was banned, not its publication. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut after all the brouhaha, nobody wanted to print it in India.”<\/p>\n

In 2012, the government of Rajasthan state sought the arrest<\/a> of four Indian authors – Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Jeet Thayil – after they downloaded a few passages from the Satanic Verses and read them out at a literary festival in the city.<\/p>\n

At the time, many legal experts were of the opinion that downloading a book whose import had been banned could not be considered a crime. But online copies of the book have been hard to find in India. <\/p>\n

Rushdie, 76, continues to face threats over his outspoken views on Islam. <\/p>\n

In 2022, he lost an eye and spent six weeks in hospital after being stabbed up to 10 times on stage at an event in New York state. The suspect, Hadi Matar, has been charged with attempted murder.<\/p>\n

In his recent memoir, the writer has criticised the response to his book, noting that “no properly authorised body [in India] had reviewed the book, nor was there any semblance of a judicial process”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images Salman Rushdie’s outspoken views on Islam have made him a target of extremists Is it legal to import Sir Salman Rushdie\u2019s The Satanic Verses in India? This question has been puzzling legal experts since the Delhi High Court suggested this week that the notification banning the novel\u2019s import – issued in 1988 – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16646,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16644\/revisions\/16646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}