Notification banning Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses 'untraceable'

The Centre has failed to produce a 1988 notification vide which it had banned the import of Salman Rushdie's controversial book, 'The Satanic Verses'.

Interestingly, the Centre informed the Delhi High Court that the notification was "untraceable, and therefore, could not be produced". As a result, the high court rendered the petition infructuous, holding that it has "no other option except to presume that no such notification exists".



The division bench of the high court ruled that it "cannot examine the validity thereof and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous". The bench has held that the petitioner is "entitled to take all actions in respect of the said book as available in law".

The petitioner, Sandipan Khan, had moved the Delhi High Court seeking to quash the October 1988 notification issued by the Customs Department to all state governments and Union Territories for appropriate action under the law to ban the import of 'The Satanic Verses'.

The petitioner had also sought quashing of the advisory issued by the Union home ministry on the basis of notification issued by the Customs Department. Khan had also sought directions from the court permitting him to import the controversial book.


In support of his plea, the petitioner referred to a RTI response received by him in November 2017 from the "Centre wherein the petitioner was informed of the aforesaid book being banned and specifically to an earlier order dated November 2022, as per which even the learned counsel for the respondents had informed this court that the said notification was untraceable, and...could not be produced".