Richard Gere kissing incident: Bombay High Court seeks response from State on plea by Shilpa Shetty to quash case

The Bombay High Court on Saturday sought response from the Maharashtra government on the plea filed by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty seeking to quash the complaint alleging obscenity filed against her after Hollywood actor Richard Gere had publicly kissed her at a promotional event in Rajasthan in 2007..Single-judge Justice RG Avachat also asked the complainant, a lawyer who had lodged the complaint in Jaipur, to respond to the petition. The matter was posted for hearing after 4 weeks..During the hearing on Saturday, advocate Madhukar Dalvi submitted that if one sees the video of the 2007 event, then by no stretch of imagination could it be presumed that Shetty had any intention of doing any obscene act.“The object of the event organised was charitable and to spread the awareness of AIDS. Only some disgruntled people gave it a bad light due to the incident only to gain undue publicity since celebrities are involved," Dalvi submitted..After hearing Dalvi, Justice Avachat decided to issue notice to respondents and seek their reply. Apart from Maharashtra government, advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari who was the complainant in the case at Jaipur, too will has to file a reply within four weeks..The incident, which arose in Jaipur in 2007, led to a complaint before a Judicial Magistrate First Class in Mundawar, Rajasthan seeking registration of FIR against Shetty and Gere, which was allowed.The FIR booked the accused for offences under Sections 292, 293, 294 (obscenity) of the Indian Penal Code, along with provisions of Information Technology and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.Shetty’s plea to transfer the case to Mumbai was allowed by Supreme Court in 2017 after which the complaint and the transfer case came to be heard by the Metropolitan Magistrate at Ballard Pier, Mumbai..Shetty filed two applications seeking discharge under Section 239 (discharge after considering police report and documents) and Section 245 (discharge after considering evidence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure respectively.After hearing both sides, the Magistrate allowed her discharge under Section 239 but the application under Section 245 was rejected as the summons triable case had no provision for discharge.Shetty’s plea in High Court has challenged the rejection of application under Section 245 of CrPC.