INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - MAY - JUNE 2007
The Month that was ...

SHILPA GETS APEX COURT RELIEF FROM MORAL POLICE

The Supreme Court stayed the proceedings by a Rajasthan court against her on the kissing controversy involving Hollywood star Richard Gere. The apex court also issued notices on her petition seeking transfer of all cases related to the controversy to Mumbai. While staying the proceedings, a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan also stayed the order of the court in Rajasthan that restrained Shetty from going overseas. Shetty had moved the apex court seeking the transfer to a court in Mumbai all criminal proceedings initiated against her in connection with the row created after Gere kissed her.

While seeking the quashing of criminal cases registered against her in the judicial magistrate's courts in Jodhpur, Ghaziabad and Mundawar (Alwar), Shetty had also sought a stay on proceedings until the transfer plea was decided. In her petition, Shetty claimed that the April 15 incident was wrongly projected by the media resulting in the filing of private complaints before the magistrates in Jodhpur, Mundawar and Ghaziabad by some local lawyers.

Shetty apprehended that she might be served with summons or warrants by the magistrates and hence sought the transfer of the cases to the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai, where she lives. The kissing incident during an AIDS awareness programme at the Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the national capital last month had sparked strong protests in several cities.