Shilpa / Gere Kiss-warrant magistrate transferred

May 3, 2007

Prakash Bhandari

[3 May, 2007 l 0251 hrs IST lTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

JAIPUR: Acting after an uproar by some of India's top legal

luminaries over an arrest warrant issued to actor Gere and

summons to Shilpa Shetty for their on-stage kiss, the Rajasthan High

Court moved the offending magistrate from the additional CJM's court

and out of Jaipur on Wednesday.

C P Singh, High Court registrar, told TOI that Dinesh Gupta, who last

week acted on a frivolous PIL filed by an overzealous and moralistic

advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari, had been transferred with immediate

effect to Kishangarh in Ajmer district.

Singh didn't say what prompted the sudden transfer and described it

as `routine'. But he did say it was done at the behest of Chief

Justice Sachidanand Jha.

TOI had reported on April 27 the outrage among legal experts

triggered by magistrate Gupta's order.

Gupta refused to meet a TOI reporter who went to his Jaipur home for

comment.

His family members said that he was unwell and had nothing to say on

the transfer.

Gupta's order, not dissimilar to what the usual suspects of moral

policing do, had angered some of India's top lawyers.

Former attorney-general Soli Sorabjee said magistrates had started to

behave like Taliban moral police and were making " us look

ridiculous. "

warrant_magistrate_transferred/articleshow/1994571.cms

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