West Bengal Sports Minister Subash Chakraborty is pleading for the ban on cheerleaders in West Bengal and has even sought the intervention of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya. Three ministers—Kshiti Goswami, Nandgopal Bhattacharya and Pratim Chatterjee—are also lending support to the demand. The Navi Mumbai police seems to have learnt some lessons from fashion shows: “We have been told that any instance of wardrobe malfunctioning will be severely dealt with and hot pants and exposure of deep cleavage will not be tolerated,” said Kaushik Roy, Director IndiaWin Sports. There seems to be no problem in Bangalore: “There is no problem whatsoever,” said Venkat Vardhan of DNA, one of the groups overseeing the conduct of matches in the City. “The problem has been there only at a couple of venues. We haven’t received any directive from the authorities concerned regarding the issue.”

Just when there is talk of the Indian Premier League (IPL) making Indian sporting history, the Maharashtra government has decided you can't keep cheering on. The state government has asked IPL team franchisees to apply for permits before cheerleaders can be allowed to perform in Mumbai. The move came as a response to politicians who alleged the cheerleaders were “vulgar”. See what the moral cops had to say: “They will first have to take our permission. We will allow them on the condition that there’s nothing vulgar in their performance,” said Home Minister Siddharam Mhetre. Opposition leaders in the legislature on Wednesday said that if bar dancers were banned for promoting immorality then cheerleaders were no less obscene.

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 to travel to and from India. The court criticised the complainant for his "moral policing" and observed, "such complaints are publicity hunting. You are bringing a bad name to this country". Phew!

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: 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 case, but according to them since the incident took place in Delhi it should be investigated here. The Senior Superintendent Police, Alwar, sent the case file to Delhi last week. “They have sent the files following a local court order, but the case has already been stayed by the Supreme Court. There is nothing that we can do,” said an officer.

Richard Gere has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on an arrest warrant issued against him by a Jaipur court in a complaint over his and actress Shilpa Shetty's cheek-kiss during a charity show last year. Says the Times of India: Gere also sought a stay on the order of a Mundawar court in Rajasthan which directed him not to leave the country in a similar case. The matter was mentioned by Gere's counsel before a bench headed by the Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan for an early hearing but the court directed the registry to list the matter for hearing after two weeks.

If you think chastity and virginity are things of the past, keep such notions to yourself. Or, do whatever you want. Just don't say it aloud, or you will land in a spot. At least, that's what Susmita Sen has learnt. Her comment, "No Indian has chastity or virginity any more" has upset the culture cops of Tamil Nadu, and the Madurai branch of the Madras High Court has issued a notice against her. A notice has also been issued to the Tamil newspaper Dina Thanthi which issued the transcripts of Sen's television interview. Lawyer Girish Kumar in his petition sought to prosecute the actress under IPC Sections 292, 292B, 293 and 294 ( all pertaining to obscenity in print, words and songs), 499 and 500 ( which relate to defamation), besides Sections 3, 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act and 2, 3 and 6 of the Young Persons Harmful Publication Act. The notice will have to be returned by January 7.

Maharashtra's deputy chief minister RR Patil is the chief moral policeman of his state. After Mumbai's bar dancers, he now wants to book cheerleaders at the recent India-Australia T20 match for flouting obscenity laws. Gyrating cheerleaders in tiny tank tops is a trademark of the new T20 format in cricket and they were at their bootylicious best at the Australia-India match at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. And they have been noticed by Patil for all the wrong reasons. ;) He wants to conduct an enquiry to investigate if these T20 cheer leaders were obscene.[Link] The Maharashtra government will now look at recordings of the Mumbai T20 match to figure out if they was any obscenity or vulgar gestures made during the dance performances. Well, it was all fine when India won the T20 World Cup. Wasn't it?

Twelve years ago, a New Delhi couple were booked for indulging in an "obscene act" in a public place. The male of the two died six years ago. And now the female concerned has finally been let off by the court. A case was registered against Seema and one Atma Prakash after they were found allegedly indulging in the obscene act at a DDA park in Uttam Nagar under police station Janakpuri here on June 17, 1995. A court acquitted Seema of the charges June 26, noting contradictions in statements of prosecution witnesses. "Neither the evidence put on records, nor the witnesses examined have revealed anything to depict or prove the obscene act having annoyed anyone," the court said. The Times of India has the full report here.

Now you can be arrested for the way you dance. That's what happened to 41 youngsters, including 11 girls, at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra recently. They were arrested for dancing together in an "obscene" manner. If this thought itself was not obscene, the Press Trust of India (PTI) creed virtually agreed with the contention. Read it in full: About 41 people including 11 young girls, who were dancing together in an obscene manner at Kala Kendra have been arrested, police said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the Antakshari Kala Kendra on Sholapur Road near Rui Chhattisi and arrested them on Wednesday, they said. Police raided the Kala Kendra on June 3 and June 4. The Kala Kendra, which was violating all rules and norms, belongs to the brother of a retired police officer, police said. The Kala Kendra was permitted to operate between 1800 hours to 2200 hours but it operated through out the night.

The Supreme Court has stayed all legal proceedings in obscenity cases initiated against actress Shilpa Shetty in courts in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the public kiss by Richard Gere during an AIDS awareness function on April 15 in New Delhi. A bench headed by Justice KG Balakrishnan also issued notices to various complainants on her petition seeking transfer of all the cases related to the controversy to Mumbai. Seeking quashing of criminal cases registered against her in various courts at Jaipur, Ghaziabad and Mundawar (Alwar), Shetty also sought stay on all proceedings until the transfer on her petition was decided. [Link]