Expressionist

Film actor Akshay Kumar has landed in trouble on grounds of obscenity for letting his wife Twinkle Khanna unbutton his jeans at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai a few days back. From the Indian Express: [ Link] Advocate Virendra Kumar filed the case in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Kumar against the star couple's performance during the promotional catwalk for a particular brand of jeans at a show. The court after recording the complainant's statement, has scheduled...

The Supreme Court has suspended legal proceedings against Richard Gere, who faced obscenity charges for publicly kissing Bollyood star Shilpa Shetty last year. Gere made headlines when he arched over and kissed Shilpa Shetty, winner of the British reality television show "Celebrity Big Brother", several times on the cheek at an anti-AIDS show in New Delhi. Reuters says Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice RV Raveendran stayed the arrest warrants against Gere and granted permission for him...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the lifting of bans on the screening of "Jodhaa Akbar", a film about the romance between a Mughal emperor and a Hindu princess that had angered the Rajput community, says a Reuters report. [ Link] Several states banned the film on the grounds that its screening would incite violence after Rajputs protested and even attacked movie halls screening it. The makers of the film moved the Supreme Court, saying the bans were illegal and had led to huge revenue losses...

The Orissa State Women's Commission has taken upon itself the onerous job of playing the moral police in state capital Bhubaneswar. On Friday, they took help from the real police and hounded out 200 young couples from a popular dating haunt, the Science Park. The Indian Express had this to report: [ Link] (SCW chairperson Namita) Panda said she was prompted to raid the park because of rising cases of unwed mothers and rape on false promise of marriage by youngmen in the capital. “Most of the...

You can't beat this — the Andhra Pradesh government has banned dancing in clubs, bars and pubs to prevent law and order problems. Orchestra and singing accompanied by eating and drinking, however, has been permitted at these places if the managements obtained amusement licences. How amusing. We have been told as much by none other than the home minister of the state, K Jana Reddy. No, he did not convey this to us personally. He chose to announce this in the state Assembly during question hour on...

The Rajasthan police has quietly transferred the Shilpa Shetty-Richard Gere kissing-in-public case to its Delhi counterparts. The Indian Express has all the details of the case on which there is a Supreme Court stay order: [ Link] The Delhi Police had not registered any FIR after examining the complaints against Gere’s action — he planted kisses on Shetty’s cheek during an AIDS awareness programme at Samaipur Badli on April 15, 2007. On a lawyer’s complaint, the Rajasthan Police had registered a...

Valentine's Day comes every year with its share of spoils. I mean, the spoilsports. This year couldn't have been any different. More so, since the zealots have not died away. Just a quick rundown of some news reports: The New Indian Express: ROURKELA: Planning a date on Valentine Day. Here is a warning for unmarried young couples. The moral police in the saffron brigade will be on a prowl at vulnerable dating points to swoop down on lovebirds engaged in intimacy! This year too the VHP and its...

A year has rolled on, but Mallika Sherawat's "obscene" performance case of the last New Year's Eve still rolls on as well. A Mumbai court has directed three witnesses to record statement in the case. Metropolitan Magistrate G Wankhade at Bandra court has examined the evidence presented by the complainant Vinod Jain, a so-called social worker. [ Link] Wankhade has issued summons to Praveen Gala, Avinash Jain and Halim Qureshi, three witnesses in the case to appear before the court and record the...

The government of Kerala is very considerate. It has considered following the footsteps of teh authorities of the Guruvayoor temple. It hs condescended to allow women teachers in the state to wear churidars. How thoughtful. The New Indian Express has some backgrounder to this: [ Link] It is learnt that the intervention of Education Minister M A Baby also fuelled the idea. The order pointed out that since male teachers are allowed to wear shirts and pants female teachers should be allowed to wear...

MF Husain remains in the news. The Supreme Court has now transferred a criminal case pending against him for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus with his controversial paintings from a court in Maharashtra to Delhi. The details are from a Press Trust of India (PTI) story in the Hindu: [ Link] A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan Monday directed that the criminal case against Hussain will now be shifted from a court in Pandharpur to the Patiala House Courts where two...