Chandigarh Feb 26 (UNI) Punjab and Haryana High Court today exempted former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani from personal appearance in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gurgaon in connection with the criminal complaint filed against him there by Abhishek Verma, named in the multi-crore scorpene scam.

Justice Ranjit Singh Randhawa granted the exemption after the preliminary hearing of arguments of the counsel for Mr Advani. The court has also issued notice to Verma for May 21 to file his reply on Mr Advani's plea.

Mr Advani's counsel said the CBI probe into the scam which was exposed by a New Delhi news weekly, was sought at a press conference jointly addressed by Mr Advani, ex-defence ministers Jaswant Singh and George Fernandes in New Delhi.

As a public figure it was Mr Advani's duty to raise issues of public interest and he had accordingly raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, where he is the Leader of the Opposition, he stressed.

The counsel also contended that the complaint against Mr Advani was aimed at diverting the attention of the nation besides being politically motivated as ''Verma belonged to a family, which supported the Congress.'' Verma had mentioned in the complaint that the allegations had seriously affected his plan to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

UNI