City Sessions Court, Mumbai judge S.C. Jadhav recently upheld a discharge order passed by a Metropolitan Magistrate discharging Shilpa Shetty in an obscenity case filed against her after Hollywood actor Richard Gere had publicly kissed her at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007.

The Sessions judge dismissed the revision application filed by the State of Maharashtra.

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 offences under Sections 292, 293, 294 and the Information Technology and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai from Rajasthan on a transfer application filed by Shilpa Shetty 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 Richard Gere, who is the main accused in the case.

The State of Maharashtra challenged this order before the sessions court. The State claimed that the magistrate had erred in discharging the accused and that the order was illegal and against the principles of natural justice.

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

Case Details:-

Case Type: CRI REV APP
Filing Number: 110964/2022Filing Date: 11-04-2022
The State of Maharashtra
Versus
Shilpa Shetty Kundra