New Delhi: Hollywood actor Richard Gere's plea seeking stay of his arrest warrant in connection with the kissing row involving Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty would be taken up by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The apex court has accepted Gere's plea for an urgent hearing on the matter in view of his scheduled meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in India on March 21.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan accepted the plea of senior advocate Indira Jaisinh, appearing for actor-cum-anti-AIDS campaigner Gere, to grant an urgent hearing as the existence of the arrest warrant may come in the way of the actor's scheduled meeting with the Dalai Lama.
On February 11, the court had issued a notice to the complainant on whose plea a Jaipur court had issued the arrest warrant to Gere.
The court had also sought a response from the Rajasthan Government after Jaisinh said that the actor was ready to submit to the court's jurisdiction in India.
She had said the warrant was issued after the actor had left the country. The Jaipur court had restrained him from leaving the country.
The complaint was filed by Jaipur resident Poonam Chandra Bhandari. During the last hearing, the advocate for the petitioner had questioned the relief sought by Gere contending that he had filed his application on the pending petition of Shetty in which he was a respondent.
The apex court had already stayed the arrest warrant issued against Shetty and had also issued notice on her plea to transfer the case to a Mumbai Court.
In his application, the Hollywood actor said he was being harassed and victimised by way of private criminal complaints filed against him in Jaipur and Mundawar in Rajasthan, which were nothing but bids to attract media attention.
The Jaipur court had issued arrest warrants to Gere and Shetty on April 26 last year after Bhandari filed a complaint accusing the couple of committing an 'obscene act'.
A similar case has been filed in a Ghaziabad court in Uttar Pradesh against Gere.
The Hollywood actor had allegedly taken Shetty in his embrace and kissed her on the cheek at an AIDS awareness programme.
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