India, Sept. 26 -- The Supreme Court on Friday quashed a plea seeking a direction to ban Indian-British author Salman Rushdie's contentious novel 'The Satanic Verses'.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused the entertain the plea.

This comes after Delhi high court removed the ban, imposed on the book during Rajiv Gandhi's government, in November last year, saying that authorities had failed to produce the relevant notification banning the import of 'The Satanic Verses' in 1988. The high court had said that it has to be assumed that such a notification "does not exist".

During Friday's hearing, the counsel appearing for the petitioners referred to the same order by the high court. However, the Supreme Court dismissed ...