Reports: India Court Issues Arrest Warrants for Richard Gere, Shilpa Shetty for Kiss

NEW DELHI — A court issued arrest warrants for Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Thursday, saying their kiss at a public function "transgressed all limits of vulgarity," media reports said.

Judge Dinesh Gupta issued the warrants in the northwestern city of Jaipur after a local citizen filed a complaint charging that the public display of affection offended local sensibilities, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Gupta earlier viewed television footage of the event, which he called "highly sexually erotic," saying the pair violated India's strict public obscenity laws.

Gere and Shetty "transgressed all limits of vulgarity and have the tendency to corrupt the society," PTI quoted the judge as saying.

India’s penal code has plenty of remnant British Victorian-era laws, that are occasionally brought to notice through the actions of celebrities. This “public obscenity” issue is one of them, the others include homosexuality, and there are various groups trying to bring about a purge of all antiquated laws.

Keep a watch on this case. Nothing will happen. Just like the handful of such cases that precede this one.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=18847

INDIA: Court raps media for video photos of actress kissing
Media lawyer argues that the court’s rulings could pose a threat to media because celebrities can sue a paper even if news is true

The Straits Times
Monday, December 20, 2004

India’s Supreme Court has rapped the media for publishing a secretly filmed video said to show a top Bollywood actress locked in a ‘steamy’ kiss with her beau in a restaurant.

‘That cannot be in the public good,’ Supreme Court Judge Y.K. Sabharwal said on Friday. ‘In the name of public good, can the media go on doing whatever it intends to do?’

He was hearing a petition by the editor of Mid Day newspaper challenging a section of the Indian penal code which covers privacy for people in the public eye. The paper claimed it was within its rights to publish the celebrity pictures.

Hindi film actress Kareena Kapoor has threatened to sue the Hindu newspaper for 200 rupees (S$7.50) for publishing the pictures under her name.

Reports said the two were locked in a ‘steamy French kiss’.

The racy evening tabloid has insisted the video is indeed of Kapoor and actor Shahid Kapoor - the duo are not related.

The two said it was a case of mistaken identity.

The intimate shots had been taken via a cellphone with a video function. Though they are of poor quality, TV channels have played the whole clip over and over again.

Lawyer Harish Salve of the mainstream daily Hindu newspaper said the existing law could pose a grave threat to freedom of expression as it allows celebrities to initiate defamation proceedings even when a report is true.

Mr Salve said it was in the public interest for the media to cover the lives of celebrities.

The hearing continues.

While India’s traditionally Victorian values have taken a severe battering from Western influence in recent years, tongue-kissing in public is still not something celebrities are expected to be seen doing.

Date Posted: 12/20/2004

And this one:

http://www.benettontalk.com/2007/01/indian_gay_prince_fights_for_r.html

Indian gay prince fights for rights

He is a prince, but he is also a homosexual. He comes from one of the richest Indian families, but his sexual orientation might turn him into a dispossessed man. He has become a sort of media star, being interviewed repeatedly by newspapers, but he could also be regarded as a common criminal.

In India, where an old Victorian-era statute demands prison for anyone committing “sexual intercourse against the order of nature”, coming out, especially as a royal family member, can be very tough. Still it might be very helpful.
After that Manvendra Singh Gohil – the maharajah’s only child in the royal house of Rajpipla, one of India’s former princely states – went public about his sexuality (“The Prince of Rajpipla Declares That He’s a Homosexual” headlined the local newspaper), he has been publicly disowned by his family and has been stripped of his title and inheritance rights by his relatives who accused him of involvement in “activities unacceptable to society”.
Nonetheless he is not in despair. Actually now he is free to openly fight against a law which still considers homosexuality a punishable offence.

Gohil has joined a campaign promoted by human rights advocates, lawyers and AIDS activists in order to lobby for a repeal or revision of such a law: a legal challenge is now pending before the Dehli High Court and a hearing is scheduled for this month.
Gohil, who now makes a living as an organic farmer on the outskirts of Rajpipla, founded also the Lakshya Trust, a nonprofit organization working to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among the gay community in Gujarat: the group just won an award from the United Nations.

He says he has no regrets at all. His involvement in the HIV fight started years ago, when he was still trying to tiptoe out of the closet. “My parents thought I was in yoga school, but I would be out distributing condoms”.

Yes, distributing condoms is a noble act indeed. As for that Jurassic Victorian law stuck in the middle of the world’s largest democracy, it definitely seems the right time to change it. Or do we need other princes and kings to speak out?

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