India's three-decade ban on importing author Salman Rushdie's controversial 'The Satanic Verses' book has effectively been lifted after a court said the government was unable to produce the original notification that imposed the ban.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday lifted a 36-year-long import ban on Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, ruling that the ban could no longer be enforced due to the government’s inability to locate the official notification that had kept it in place.

Says that since authorities failed to produce the relevant notification, it has to be presumed that it does not exist.

The Delhi high court has said that an import ban on author Salman Rushdie’s controversial 1988 book The Satanic Verses appeared to be “non-existent”.

The Delhi High Court has disposed of a writ petition challenging the ban on the import of Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses”.

The book was banned in 1988 by the Congress government claiming that it could give rise to law and order problems.