In a detailed order discharging Shilpa Shetty in a 2007 obscenity case, the sessions court in Bombay said that she had not kissed but was kissed and that obscenity on her part was not evident. In the order made available on April 11, additional sessions judge S.C. Jadhav said, “There is absolutely no prima facie material to proceed with the trial. As such, the impugned order does not require any interference at the hands of this court. The metropolitan magistrate has rightly considered the material placed before her.”
In January 2022, a metropolitan magistrate discharged Shilpa from a criminal case filed against her in 2007 in Alwar (Rajasthan) for the alleged offence of obscenity following Hollywood actor Richard Gere hugging and kissing her in public at an event. On April 3, 2023, the sessions court dismissed the appeal filed by the state against Shilpa Shetty’s discharge from the case. Opposing the state’s appeal, Shilpa’s lawyer, Prashant Patil, submitted that the only allegation against her was that she did not protest when she was kissed by the co-accused, Richard Gere, and that did not make her a conspirator or perpetrator of any crime. Patil sought a dismissal of the appeal filed against her discharge in the case.
The case was transferred to Bombay in 2017 on the Supreme Court’s orders. Shilpa had attended the 2007 event in Rajasthan for AIDS awareness. A complaint of obscenity was filed against Shilpa Shetty in the court of judicial magistrate first class, Mundawar, for obscenity and criminal conspiracy.