India's three-decade-long ban on an iconic book may have effectively ended due to the government's inability to locate the original notification enforcing the ban.
In 1988, India banned Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" due to protests from Muslim communities who deemed the novel blasphemous. The decision was reinforced by violent demonstrations across the Muslim world and a ruling issued by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini which called for Rushdie's assassination.
However, despite the longstanding ban, the government has been unable to find official documentation of the order in recent years, Al Jazeera reported.
In 2019, the case was brought to attention by Indian citizen Sandipan Khan. The Delhi High Court then concluded that the notification imposing the import ban could not be found after several extensive searches by several government departments.
Following the misplacement, the court declared that the ban no longer stood, lifting the restriction on importing the book. Now, unless the government reinstates it through new legal action, the ban is no longer valid.
It is unclear whether the government will reissue a new ban or take any other legal steps to restrict the book's availability.
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