Jurist India court lifts ban on controversial novel for missing notification

[Dadparvar]

India’s Delhi High Court on Tuesday lifted the ban on Salman Rushdie’s novel ‘The Satanic Verses” due to the government’s failure to promulgate the ban in 1988. The controversial novel is especially known for being considered blasphemous by Muslims.

The petitioner challenged the ban, reportedly imposed on October 5, 1988, as unconstitutional and requested the import of the book be allowed without legal consequence. The petitioner asserted that the government violated his right to information by failing to make the notification of the ban available on the government’s website, rendering it “untraceable could not be produced in court.” He alleged that he was only informed of the ban from the government’s right of information response in 2017. Right to Information, is an Indian law that allows citizens to request information from government bodies, promoting transparency and accountability.

During the hearing, representatives of the government confirmed they could not locate or present a copy of the notification. Consequently, the court presumed the notification did not exist, making it impossible to assess its validity. As a result, the court held:

In the light of the aforesaid circumstances, we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine the validity thereof and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous. The petitioner will, therefore, be entitled to take all actions in respect of the said book as available in law.​

“The Satanic Verses” by Rushdie is a highly acclaimed yet controversial novel that explores themes of religious faith, identity, and cultural conflict. The novel blends reality and imagination in a story set in the modern world. It opens with the terrorist bombing of a London-bound plane, from which two Indian actors with contrasting natures miraculously survive, embodying the forces of good and evil. Nonetheless, the book contained passages about the Prophet Muhammad, which led to many Muslims considering it blasphemous. In 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, ordering the murder of Rushdie, editors and publishers of the novel, claiming it as an “insult to the sacred beliefs of Muslims.”

On August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was violently attacked on stage in New York, sustaining serious injuries, including the loss of vision in one eye and damage to his hand. The assailant isbelieved to be motivated by the decades-old fatwa, a religious edict, against Rushdie over the novel.

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