Padmaavat controversy: SC rejects fresh plea suggesting deletion of scenes; says, 'leave this cause'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (29 January) said a time comes when one must rest the cause one is fighting for as it rejected a petition seeking to delete some of the controversial scenes from Bollywood film Padmaavat.

“A point has come… you must leave this cause,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra told advocate ML Sharma who was arguing for deletion of scenes which were not “conducive to harmony” in society. [caption id=“attachment_4322229” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Poster for Padmaavat. Facebook/ Deepika Padukone[/caption] Petitioner Sharma said that on 20 November, 2017 the court had struck off six paragraphs of his petition as it felt that they were not conducive to harmony in society. “This (the deletion of six paragraphs from the petition) does not mean that it can’t be used anywhere,” said the bench, also comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud. The top court by its 20 November order had said: “Pleadings in a court are not meant to create any kind of disharmony in the society which believes in the conceptual unity among diversity.” Recalling the order which read “…what has been struck off by this court should not be used otherwise”, Sharma said what could not survive in his petition in written form can’t be there in the film. Sharma told the bench that right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Constitution’s Article 19(1) was available to rich and mighty represented by well-known lawyers. The SC has been maintaining its stand saying a film cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) can’t be banned or imposed any further censorship. Sharma explaining his stand to the apex court asked them instead who will be responsible if “there are murders and riots because of screening of the film,” reports The Times of India. Irked by his argument the panel of judges, including the Chief Justice of India, in strong words told him, “The states had used this argument on Thursday (25 January) to justify ban on screening of the film despite CBFC certification. We did not accept it. And today, you are presenting the same argument,” adds the TOI report. (With inputs from IANS)