Mumbai, Mar 22: A sessions court on Monday extended till March 29 its stay on a magistrate's order issuing summons to Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai and her family in a cheating case filed by a real estate agent for non-payment of brokerage towards purchase of a property. As regards the plea of the actress and her family to dismiss the complaint, sessions judge HS Deshpande heard the arguments and kept the matter for orders on March 29.

Magistrate SY Shishode had issued summons on January 10 asking Aishwarya Rai, her brother and parents to appear in person before him in a cheating case filed by estate agent Krishna Kumar Shetty.

Shetty filed a private complaint in Bandra court alleging that during 1998 he had rendered services to help Aishwarya's family in buying a 3,000 sq ft flat in suburban Bandra. However, they did not pay him the brokerage as agreed by them.

Aishwarya Rai's lawyer Girish Kulkarni argued that no offence was made out against the actress and her family and also there was no agreement between them and the real estate agent.

However, Shetty's lawyer Ramesh Singh argued the flat in 'La Maid' building in suburban Bandra, was jointly purchased by Aishwarya, her father Krishnaraj, mother Brindaraj and brother Aditya for Rs 1.75 crore and they had agreed to pay him brokerage of two per cent of the value of the flat, which worked out to Rs 3.75 lakh.

Shetty said that he had served a legal notice on them asking them to pay the brokerage charges. But they did not respond and he filed a complaint in the court charging the actress and her family with cheating and criminal breach of trust in respect of their agreement. Bureau Report