Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is expected to return from London this week, today got some reprieve with the Punjab and Haryana high court staying his arrest till July 31 in a graft case.

The high court also directed the airport authorities in Delhi not to detain Singh on his arrival from London.

Justice R S Randhawa issued notices to the state of Punjab, the Union government, the director of the Bureau Immigration and Immigration Controller at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.

Singh had moved the court yesterday through his counsel seeking transit anticipatory bail so that he is not arrested at the airport on his return to India due to a red corner notice issued against him, former advocate general and Singh's lawyer R S Cheema said.

Singh had gone to the United Kingdom soon after taking oath as MLA on March 15.

Three weeks after Parkash Singh Badal became chief minister, Singh and 18 others were booked by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on March 24 for alleged corruption and cheating in connection with the Ludhiana City Centre scam.

The Vigilance Bureau, in its First Information Report, had accused Amarinder Singh of violating all norms in patronising and abetting the dilution of terms and conditions for favouring a particular party in executing the City Centre project.

Former state Congress chief H S Hanspal, former local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and the then chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust Paramjit Singh Sibia were also among those booked in the case.

The Vigilance Bureau had arrested two officials of Infrastructure Professional Enterprises, Kamal Kumar and Amit Sardana, whose services were hired by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust.

During the recent Punjab assembly polls, the Ludhiana City Centre scam was a major issue for the Akali Dal, which charged Amarinder Singh with colluding with a developer in the allotment of the Rs 3,000 crore project being developed by the LIT.