The court has issued the arrest warrants in an "obscenity case" against actresses Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen when the duo failed to turn up in a court in southern Madurai city in response to earlier summons.

After T Dhakshinamoorthy, an local advocate, filed a petition, judicial magistrate Seetharaman had ordered them to appear on March 10 and on their absence had issued several summons to the actresses.

The summons were also published in newspapers in Hindi and English. But the duo did not appear in court. And hence non-bailable warrants were issued on Friday.

Lawyer T. Dhakshinamoorthy earlier alleged in his court petition that that the regional Tamil language daily, the Tamil Murasu, had published "very sexy blow-ups" of the Bollywood sirens in its issues in December and January which clearly violate the Indecent Representation of Women Act, and were misleading the youth.

But Shilpa Shetty clearly denies the charges. According to her, the photograph in question is actually a freeze-frame shot from a Tamil film Shilpa has acted in. It was used by the makers from the 'censored' version of the movie, for promotion purposes on publicity hoardings. From here, it was lifted by a Tamil eveninger called 'Tamil Murasu'.

"It is NOT a photo-shoot picture for which she has posed. And most importantly, it is NOT a picture that can be termed as one to offend sensibilities," fumes her publicist.

"Living in a time, when we see actresses in movies and in publicity stills with their bosoms popping out, this so-called obscene picture shows nothing but Shilpa Shetty's navel. If that is OBSCENE, you might hear about cheeks and elbows next!!"

"Thus, this case seems to be yet another publicity stunt on the part of those who want to gain mileage by suing celebrities, to be known and famous in their hometowns. Last but not the least, Shilpa Shetty is a responsible actress and citizen and would never participate in anything crude," he adds.

An arrest warrant was also issued for the paper's editor R.N. Murugan, the news agency reported.