No Proof Of Obscenity Against Actress: Mumbai Court

The Mumbai court today stated “ A woman who is groped on the street is a victim and cannot be termed an accused” while discharging Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an obscenity case registered against her after she was kissed on stage by Hollywood actor Richard Gere at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007.

Sessions judge SC Jadhav said that Shetty had not kissed Gere but was kissed by him and so the obscenity was not on Shetty’s part.

The judge said that “A woman being groped on the street or touched on a public way or in public transport cannot be termed as accused or participative to an extent of mental culpability and she can’t be held for illegal omission to make her liable for prosecution.”

Judge Jadahav, therefore, upheld the order of a Magistrate discharging Shetty in the case.

The court stated in its 11-page order that “An act per se indecent and obscene would not prosecution under Section 294 of the Indian Penal Code in absence of prima facie material of annoyance by any of the persons. It is unsaid fact that the present respondent had not kissed but was kissed. Obscenity on her part is not evident. There is nothing on record to elaborate on the prima facie evidence of annoyance by the complainant.”

Also, the judge opined that the victim against whom the crime had been committed couldn’t be made an accused.

The complaint was filed in the year 2007 before the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Mundawar, Rajasthan seeking the registration of a case against Shetty and Gere.

The Magistrate allowed the same and the accused were booked for offenses under Sections 292, 293, 294 (obscenity) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with provisions of the Information Technology (IT) and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

Shetty’s plea to transfer the case to Mumbai was allowed by the Supreme Court in 2017, after which the complaint and the transfer case came to be heard by the metropolitan magistrate at Ballard Pier, Mumbai.

Magistrate Ketaki Chavan discharged Shilpa Shetty in January 2022, opining that Shetty seemed to have been a victim of the act by Gere, who is the main accused in the case. This order was challenged by the State of Maharashtra before the sessions court which was dismissed by the judge on April 3, 2023.

The session’s judge held that “There is absolutely no prima facie material to proceed with the trial. As such, the order does not require any interference at the hands of this court. The Metropolitan Magistrate has rightly considered the material placed before her. Criminal Revision Application deserves to be dismissed.”