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Case against Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen quashed

Staff Reporter

Reema Sen

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday quashed a criminal case against actors S. Shilpa Shetty and B. Reema Sen.

The case was registered following the publication of their “obscene” photographs in eveninger Tamil Murasu between December 26, 2005 and February 6, 2006.

Justice S. Nagamuthu said the Judicial Magistrate II here could proceed with the trial against the publisher, printer and editor of the newspaper under the provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act and the Young Persons (Harmful Publication) Act.

Passing common orders on the petitions filed by the actors, the judge said the magistrate should not have issued summons to the petitioners as no prima facie case was made out against them. “There is no material to show that the petitioners either published or were responsible for the publishing of their pictures, which are said to be indecent representation of women.”

Shilpa Shetty

The judge agreed that the contents of a complaint would be sufficient for a magistrate to take cognisance of a case. But, for issuing summons, the magistrate should meticulously scrutinise all materials available on recordand issue summons only to the relevant accused.

“In this case, there may be prima facie case against the first accused [newspaper]. But there is no material necessitating issuance of summons to the petitioners.”

On the non-bailable warrants issued against the actors for not responding to the summons, Mr. Justice Nagamuthu said: “Of course, no one is above law and so they should have either appeared before the court or made an alternative arrangement seeking to dispense with their personal appearance... But, at the same time, when they have come to this court with a plea that the case is baseless and it is an abuse of the process of court, the doors of justice cannot be shut on a technical ground that NBWs are pending against them.”

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