Tweets on Marathi movies; SC disposes of plea of Shobhaa De

The Supreme Court today disposed of a plea filed by author Shobhaa De against the breach of privilege notice issued by Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for her tweets against a decision ordering exhibition of Marathi movies at multiplexes during prime time shows.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and P C Pant decided to close the case after counsel for De and the state government informed it that the Maharashtra Assembly has accepted De's response to the privilege notice and now nothing survived.
De, on October 14, was asked by the apex court to respond within a fortnight to the breach of privilege notice to clarify that her tweets on Marathi movies has "remotely nothing" to do with the conduct of the House.

"To put the controversy at rest, we require the petitioner (De) to file a reply before the 1st Respondent (Maharashtra Assembly) stating that whatever she had stated has remotely nothing to do with the conduct of the Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly.
"The said reply shall be filed within a fortnight hence. Needless to say, filing of such a reply is without prejudice to the contentions raised in the Writ Petition," the bench had said.
The court had earlier stayed the breach of privilege notice issued against De by Maharashtra Assembly Speaker for her tweets on the state government's decision to make it mandatory for multiplexes to screen Marathi movies during prime time.

The author had moved the apex court against the notice issued by the Assembly Speaker following a complaint against her by a Shiv Sena lawmaker Pratap Sarnaik alleging that her series of tweets insulted Marathi language and Marathi-speaking people.

The Principal Secretary of the state Assembly had issued a notice to De asking her to explain her tweets.
The columnist had tweeted, "Devendra 'Diktatwala' Fadnavis is at it again!!! From beef to movies. This is not the Maharashtra we all love! Nako!Nako! Yeh sab roko!"
De had tweeted that it was nothing but hooliganism. "I love Marathi movies. Let me decide when and where to watch them, Devendra Fadnavis. This is nothing but Dadagiri.