Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking ban on Salman Rushdie’s book

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to ban Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel “The Satanic Verses”.

The plea came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners referred to the Delhi High Court’s November last year order.

The high court had closed the proceedings on a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s decision to ban the import of “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, saying since authorities have failed to produce the relevant notification, it has to be presumed that it does not exist.

“You are effectively challenging the judgement of the Delhi High Court,” the bench observed, while dismissing the plea.

The petition was filed in the apex court through advocate Chand Qureshi.

It alleged the book was available due to the order passed by the high court.

The Centre had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author’s “The Satanic Verses” for law-and-order reasons in 1988, after Muslims across the world viewed it as blasphemous.