On Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's birthday, a Mumbai magistrate Thursday exempted him from appearing before it in a 2002 hit-and-run case.

"The Bandra metropolitan magistrate has granted exemption to Salman. We had applied before the court on the ground that the Bombay High Court had already granted him permanent exemption," the actor's lawyer Dipesh Mehta told IANS.

The court was hearing a complaint against the actor filed by lawyer and activist Y.P. Singh alleging that police were helping him by delaying the case proceedings.

The complainant said that the trial in the case had been on for over 10 years with little progress.

The court had asked Salman to appear personally to answer the charges.

Mehta, however, pleaded that the actor was not responsible for allegedly delaying the trial in hit-and-run case and sought dismissal of the complaint.

He also said that the actor had shown his readiness to appear in court whenever directed to do so.

Salman Sep 28, 2002 rammed his car into a bakery in suburban Bandra in northwest Mumbai, killing one and injuring four others who were sleeping on a pavement.