The Bombay High Court today refused accept a plea to grant stay on an appeal filed by Bollywood actor Salman Khan against the five-year sentence awarded to him in the 2002 hit-and-run case.


A convict in a murder case, whose appeal has not been heard since 2009, had filed an intervention application seeking a stay on Salman Khan's appeal.


He contended that the matters of celebrities were heard out-of-turn whereas those of other convicts like him were kept pending endlessly as a result of which they continued to languish in jails.


The convict has also filed a separate petition in the High Court making the same allegation about appeals of celebrities being heard urgently. He has prayed that his appeal may be heard expeditiously.


Justice A R Joshi refused to stay Salman's appeal saying that both the sides in the case had consented for expeditious hearing of the matter. Moreover, the Judge said, in the petition filed by the convict (who has intervened), the High Court has not passed any judicial order.


The intervenor's counsel, Aparna Vatkar, had sought a stay on Salman's appeal saying it should not be heard until the petition filed by her client separately before another bench is decided by the High Court.