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Supreme Court quashes plea seeking ban on Salman Rushdie's ‘The Satanic Verses’
The petition objected to availability of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the market after Delhi high court's lifted the ban on the book in November last year.
The Supreme Court on Friday quashed a plea seeking a direction to ban Indian-British author Salman Rushdie's contentious novel 'The Satanic Verses'.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused the entertain the plea.
This comes after Delhi high court removed the ban, imposed on the book during Rajiv Gandhi's government, in November last year, saying that authorities had failed to produce the relevant notification banning the import of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988. The high court had said that it has to be assumed that such a notification “does not exist”.
During Friday's hearing, the counsel appearing for the petitioners referred to the same order by the high court. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea and said, “You are effectively challenging the judgement of the Delhi High Court.”
The petition was filed through advocate Chand Qureshi, reported news agency PTI. It objected to availability of the book in the market following high court's court.
The book by Booker Prize-winning author was banned in 1988 after it was deemed blasphemous by Muslim organisations across the world. Even after the ban was lifted by the Delhi high court in November last year, several Islamic organisations had objected to the order.
The book had made its way back into the Indian market after the ban was lifted. However, in December 2024, days after the Delhi high court order, Islamic clerics called for the ban to be continued.
Maulana Yasoob Abbas, the General Secretary of the All India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB) had argued that there should have been dialogue with concerned Muslim group before the decision of removing the ban was taken.
Salman Rushdie is no stranger to controversies. After the book was released in 1988 , it was declared blasphemous by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Following this, Rushdie received several death threats and became the global symbol of free speech.
