Legal experts and government officials have told The Hindu that there is no ban on reading, possessing or downloading copies of Salman Rushdie's controversial book, The Satanic Verses.
The book, sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Finance said, was only barred from being imported under Section 11 the Customs Act of 1962, which, among other things, allows the government to prohibit imports to protect “the maintenance of the security of India” and “the maintenance of public order.”
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government used its powers under the Customs Act to prohibit imports nine days after the book was published in September, 1988, in the U.K.
“The book has been banned under the Customs Act and only under the Customs Act,” confirmed senior Supreme Court lawyer Rajeev Dhavan, who has followed the case for decades. “That means that only its entry into India was banned. The copies of the book that are already here can certainly be read.”
Four authors who read passages from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday have been threatened with prosecution, and several complaints seeking police action have been filed.
In fact, if it was illegal to read such a copy, Mr. Dhavan himself would be a law-breaker. “On January 1, 1989, a group of us — including Dileep Padgaonkar, Alok Rai and others — met at Mandi House in Delhi and read from The Satanic Verses,” he says.
“In India, for a book itself to be banned, it has to be done by a State government and go through a judicial process,” he explained.
The State government could prosecute the authors under Section 153B of the IPC, which bans hate-speech. It would have to prove, however, that the passages read out might inflame communal passions.
Section 95 of the Cr.PC allows the State governments to demand that copies of books which violate Section 153B of the IPC be forfeited. Rajasthan government officials confirmed that they had not initiated these measures.
Supreme Court lawyer and cyber-law expert Pavan Duggal also said downloading the book is not a crime. “When you download content off the internet, you come under the Information Technology Act,” he said, “which overrides any other law in this regard.”
Despite the lack of any evidence that the authors broke any law, Supreme Court lawyer Akhil Sibal — who also happens to be the son of IT Minister Kapil Sibal — advised the festival's organisers that there were “certain legal questions” regarding the actions of the authors.
Asked under which law an offence may have been committed, he said: “There is a ban on import of the book. But if a book is banned, and someone reads from it, it gives rise to certain legal questions whether an offence has been committed or not.”
The govt of India has only imposed a ban on the import of satanic verses as per the customs act, and in that background, the four participants have not committed any Illegality in reading portions of the book at the RUSHDIE festival at Jaipur. As the state Govt succumbed to the Muslim fundamentalists, the owner of the venue cannot be blamed For telling the festival organizers, that the video conferencing should not take place, apprehending danger to the venue. The state govt has demonstrated EXCELLECE IN POLICY BANKRUPTCY and Guts in guaranteeing FREE SPEECH in secular India, and the
Future historian might award a prize to the present CM of the state, for abandoning his Constitutional responsibilities to the literary world. It is reported that the chief organizer was In tears, and one can understand his unenviable position, when those in the corridors of Power, does not support him on a just cause. The BLACK WEEK has disgraced india and catapulted RUSHDIE.
This is a very interesting point raised by Mr Dhawan. I would like to know what happens if the book comes to public domain (the copyright expires for example), and somebody decides to print and distribute the book within India. Since there is ban only for imports, this does not break any law. Does it?
Nice little coup by the Hindu..."lawyer Akhil Sibal — who also happens to be the son of IT Minister Kapil Sibal"
What he means is that even though prima facie no case exists to prosecute the authors who read from the book, a reasonably wily lawyer could very well trigger a situation wherein it would be. Notice he himself keeps the issue of the extent of the outlawing of the book gray. He says "if the book is banned..."
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