Satanic Verses: Missing order raises questions about banned Salman Rushdie book

Is it lawful to buy Sir Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in India?

Legal experts have been perplexed by this question since the Delhi High Court suggested this week that the government’s decision to ban the novel’s import might no longer be valid because it could n’t be found.

The Satanic Verses, criticised by some Muslims as profane, was banned in India immediately after its launch, sparking protests abroad. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a judgment in 1989, calling for Rushdie’s death. This forced the Indian-born Booker Prize-winning artist into covering for almost a decade.

Although the text is still legally prohibited in India, some constitutional experts now think it might be imported unless the government reaffirms the ban. Some, however, caution that realistic obstacles may also occur.

After Sandipan Khan, a citizen of West Bengal state, attempted to purchase the book but discovered that it was neither published in India nor that it could be imported, the book’s restrictions came under scrutiny.

He requested the formal notification banning the import of the book in 2017, but it was sent through a number of ministries without finding it.

Khan brought the matter before the Delhi High Court in February 2019 and claimed that the restriction had an impact on his ability to read.

Government agencies consistently failed to produce the alert over the course of five years, despite having records that date back to 1968.

Suddenly, on 5 November, the court declared it had no option but to “presume” that no such restrictions warning exists and so was n’t determine its authenticity.

Is a warning true if no duplicate of it can be found? This is a confusing question.

The simple answer is, we do n’t yet.

The court advised Mr. Khan to seek any legal choices if it was unclear whether the book may be accessed in India.

Uddyam Mukherjee, Mr Khan’s attorney, told the BBC that federal agencies was n’t give a clear solution either, when asked by the court.

” I have not come across a circumstance like this”, said Madan Lokur, a former judge of the Supreme Court.

If the warning is not discovered, the text can be imported and the notification states that “technically no ban exists.”

” But, the government may move a fresh notification]banning the author’s buy ]”, Mr Lokur added, since the jury has never declared the moratorium to be illegal, but only said that the warning is presumed to never exist.

According to Mr. Mukherjee, the book could now be imported “because there is no legitimate impediment” against it.

However, some legitimate researchers disagree.

Raju Ramachandran, a top prosecutor, said he found the idea a “little intense”.

” All that the high court says is that this particular petition has become infructuous]invalid ] since the notification could not be found”, he said. The applicant is not permitted to buy the book, it has stated.

Sanjay Hegde, a senior attorney, claimed that the book could have been published in India if” one was brave enough to write it,” but only because its import was prohibited and not its release.

” But after all the hoopla, nobody wanted to write it in India”.

In 2012, the government of Rajasthan state sought the arrest 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.

Many legal professionals at the time believed that it was illegal to download a text whose trade had been banned. However, it’s been difficult to find net copies of the book in India.

Rushdie, 76, continues to face dangers over his forthright views on Islam.

He was stabbed up to ten times on stage at an event in New York state in 2022, losing one attention, and spending six weeks in the hospital. The believe, Hadi Matar, has been charged with attempted murder.

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”.