Richard Gere Kissing Incident: Mumbai Court Upholds Magistrate Order Discharging Shilpa Shetty In An Obscenity Case

A Mumbai sessions court recently upheld an order passed by a metropolitan magistrate discharging Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty in a case of obscenity filed against her after Hollywood actor Richard Gere publicly kissed her at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007.

Therefore, sessions judge SC Jadhav dismissed a revision application filed by the State of Maharashtra challenging the magistrate’s order.

After the incident at the promotional event, a complaint was filed before a Judicial Magistrate First Class in Mundawar, Rajasthan seeking registration of a case against Shetty and Gere, which was allowed.

The accused were booked for offenses under Sections of IPC 292, 293, 294 (obscenity), along with provisions of the Information Technology 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 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 session court. The State claimed that the magistrate erred in discharging the accused and that the order was illegal and against the principles of natural justice.

Furthermore, it contended that Shetty’s act of allowing herself to be kissed in public brought her within the purview of the offense of “obscene act” under Section 294 IPC.