NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court ended proceedings on a plea challenging the ban on the import of Salman Rushdie 's controversial novel, The Satanic Verses , after noting that the authorities had failed to produce the 1988 notification on the ban and it must be "presumed that it does not exist".
In an order passed on Nov 5, a bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee said that the petition, filed in 2019, was therefore infructuous, and the petitioner would be entitled to take all actions in respect of the book as available in law.
Have to assume no ban order exists, and hence, can’t examine its validity, says HC
The Rajiv Gandhi govt had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author's book citing law-and-order reasons in 1988.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan had moved court arguing that he was unable to import the book because of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, banning its import into the country in accordance with the Customs Act.
He, however, contended that the notification is neither available on any official website nor with any of the authorities concerned. During the course of the court proceedings, the authorities maintained that the notification was untraceable.
The bench observed: "What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated Oct 5, 1988, with which the petitioner is purportedly aggrieved and, in fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy of the notification during the pendency of the writ petition since its filing way back in 2019."
"In light of the aforesaid circumstances, we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine its validity and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous," it concluded.
The petitioner sought to set aside other related directions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1988.
In an order passed on Nov 5, a bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee said that the petition, filed in 2019, was therefore infructuous, and the petitioner would be entitled to take all actions in respect of the book as available in law.
Have to assume no ban order exists, and hence, can’t examine its validity, says HC
The Rajiv Gandhi govt had banned the import of the Booker Prize-winning author's book citing law-and-order reasons in 1988.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan had moved court arguing that he was unable to import the book because of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, banning its import into the country in accordance with the Customs Act.
He, however, contended that the notification is neither available on any official website nor with any of the authorities concerned. During the course of the court proceedings, the authorities maintained that the notification was untraceable.
The bench observed: "What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated Oct 5, 1988, with which the petitioner is purportedly aggrieved and, in fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy of the notification during the pendency of the writ petition since its filing way back in 2019."
"In light of the aforesaid circumstances, we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine its validity and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous," it concluded.
The petitioner sought to set aside other related directions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1988.
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