Satanic Verses ban notice is 'lost'

In a curious turn of events, the Delhi High Court has held that the Customs notification issued 36 years ago banning The Satanic Verses written by Salman Rushdie has to be presumed to be non-existent since it was untraceable.

This was after the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs submitted in the court that the 1988 notification banning the book's import could no longer be traced.

In 1988, the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had banned the book on the basis of complaints from members of the Muslim community that it was blasphemous towards the Islamic faith. Years later former Union minister K Natwar Singh defended the ban as having been taken for law and order reasons.