The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has posted for February 16 a petition seeking to quash a criminal complaint filed against Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty after a heated exchange between advocates of the petitioner and the complainant.

The complaint was filed by Dakshinamoorthy, an advocate, under Sec 292(2) read with IPC 109 (Indecent representation of Women(Prohibition) Act and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act.

The petitioner's advocate said the tendency to file cases against popular personalities was common in Tamil Nadu and similar cases had been filed against actresses Kushboo and Suhasini for their reported remarks on chastity.

The plea to stay the trial on the Kushboo and Suhasini cases was pending as cases had been filed in many courts.

While the complainants get publicity and adverse publicity affected popular personalities, the legal question was whether the Judicial Magistrate could take cognizance of such cases under Section 482, the petitioner's advocate said.

Another question was whether the "so called blow-ups" published in the eveninger 'Tamil Murasu' were obscene under Section 292 and whether pictures had been published from the films cleared by Central Board of Film certification, he said.

The complainant's advocate, who objected to the quashing of the complaint, said the magistrate was convinced about the prima facie case against the actress and the Tamil daily and issued summmons to the actress.

Later, he had issued a bailable and non bailable warrant, all in vain, and the actress did not respect court, he charged.

--- PTI