SC rejects plea to ban Salman Rushdie’s book
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard the matter, during which the petitioners’ counsel referred to a Delhi High Court order issued in November last year. The high court had closed proceedings on a plea challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s 1988 decision to ban the book’s import, noting that since the authorities had failed to produce the relevant notification, it must be presumed not to exist.
“You are effectively challenging the judgement of the Delhi High Court,” the bench observed while refusing to entertain the plea.
The petition, filed through advocate Chand Qureshi, alleged that the novel had become accessible because of the high court’s order.
The Centre had originally banned the import of The Satanic Verses in 1988 on law-and-order grounds, after it was denounced as blasphemous by Muslims worldwide.