SC junks plea seeking ban on Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking to ban Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel ‘The Satanic Verses’.

“You are effectively challenging the judgment of the Delhi High Court,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said, dismissing the petition which alleged that the book was available due to the order passed by the high court.

The Delhi High Court had in November last year 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.

The Centre had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ for public order reasons in 1988, after Muslims across the world protested against it, saying the book was blasphemous.