The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant interim stay on a Delhi [Images] high court judgment holding senior advocates R K Anand and I U Khan guilty of contempt of court for trying to influence a key witness in the BMW [Images] hit-and-run case.

A bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal, however, admitted the appeal filed by them and issued notices to respondents.

The apex court called for records of the case from the Delhi high court and posted the matter for October 14.

Senior defence counsel R K Anand and former prosecutor I U Khan were found guilty of influencing key witness Sunil Kulkarni in the BMW case and were barred by the high court on August 21 from practising in court for four months.

Anand, in his petition, contended that the high court relied on the edited tapes of a TV channel, which claimed to have conducted a sting operation to conclude that he was in collusion with the former prosecutor.

Both Anand and Khan were accused of obstructing the administration of justice by influencing the witness.

The high court on May 31, 2007, had taken suo motu cognisance of the NDTV sting operation showing Anand, in collusion with Khan, allegedly offering money to Kulkarni to depose in favour of Sanjeev Nanda, the prime accused in the case.

Nanda, the grandson of retired Naval chief S M Nanda, was later sentenced to five years imprisonment in the case by a Delhi court.