Shilpa gets relief in Gere kissing case as Mumbai court rejects revision plea

A Mumbai Sessions Court on Monday held actor Shilpa Shetty not guilty in an obscenity case, filed against her after Hollywood actor, Richard Gere publicly kissed her at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007.

The court passed the order while upholding an order of the metropolitan magistrate which had discharged Shetty from the case.

"Criminal revision stands dismissed and disposed of accordingly," Sessions judge, S C Jadhav said in his order.

The criminal revision petition had been fielding 2022 against an order an order of the magistrate order which had discharged Shetty in 2007.

The kissing incident took place during an AIDS awareness programme that was held in Rajasthan. The incident had made national headlines, with many calling the same as obscene. One of the cases was filed in Rajasthan under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.

In 2017, Shilpa Shetty had petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the case from Rajasthan to Mumbai. In January 2022, the Magistrate Court discharged the actor after observing that she seemed to be the victim of Gere's act.

On the charge that she did not protest when she was kissed, the magistrate had said that this is by no stretch of imagination makes her a conspirator or perpetrator of any crime.

The prosecution however preferred a revision application before the sessions court. It claimed that the magistrate had 'erred in discharging the accused' and the order was illegal, bad in law and against the principles of natural justice. Hence the same deserves to be set aside, the prosecution had said.

The prosecution also said that a case was made out to frame charges against the accused and that the magistrate ought to have taken into consideration that the act of the accused to kiss or allow herself to be kissed in public definitely fell within the preview of the Obscenity Act.

Shetty however argued through her counsel, Prashant Patil that the order of the magistrate was not bad in law. It was well-reasoned and based on the guidelines of the Supreme Court.

"Hence the revision application needs to be dismissed with heavy costs," Shilpa Shetty had told the court.