A local court today reserved it orders for May 5 after hearing the petitions of Bollywood stars Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam challenging the framing of charges against them in the Kankani village black buck poaching case.

The Additional District Court completed hearing of arguments for the filmstars against the charges framed by a lower court in the case relating to killing of two black bucks at Kankani village in the district on October 1-2, 1998.

The actors' lawyers contended that the charges against film stars by the Jodpur judicial magistrate did not "match" the complaint lodged by the Forest Department soon after the incident in 1998.

Salman, Tabu and Sonali have filed one revision petition while Saif and Neelam have challenged the order of the Jodhpur judicial magistrate in a separate petition.

In the morning, the court heard Mumbai-based lawyer Kant Shivde representing Saif and advocate K K Vyas appearing on behalf of Neelam. It took the case of Salman's counsel H M Saraswat after the lunch recess.

The lawyers said the charges were framed under sections of the Wildlife (Protection) Act relating to penalties read along with section 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon) of the Indian Penal Code and section 27 (possessing arms with intent for unlawful purposes) of the Arms Act, but section 148 was not mentioned in the complaint and FIR.

Saraswat said the since a separate case had already been filed and charges framed under section 27 of the Arms Act against Salman, it could not be framed in another case.