A COURT has ended a decades-old ban on the controversial novel The Satanic Verses by author Salman Rushdie (pic) after authorities were unable to locate the original order restricting its imports.
Rushdie, 77, lived in hiding for years after Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing for what he deemed the book’s blasphemous nature.
The British-American writer has since become an outspoken defender of free speech but in India, where he was born, his most infamous work has been banned since 1988, the year of its publication.
This week, however, the Delhi High Court quashed the ban in a ruling on a case first brought in 2019 by Sandipan Khan, a reader who wanted to buy the book.
The court said “none of the respondents” could produce the original notification banning the book and that its decision now allows Khan to purchase it from abroad.
“We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists.” — AFP
