The Delhi High Court Friday gave further time to Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor to reply to a petition filed by her husband Sanjay Kapur challenging the issue of a passport to their four-month-old daughter Samaira.

In the meantime, the interim restraint on Karisma from going abroad along with her daughter would stay, the court said.

On Aug 5 the court restrained Karisma from taking her daughter out of the country without the permission of her estranged husband.

Judge Mukul Mudgal Friday gave time till Aug 19 to the actress, on a request by her counsel Raian Karanjawala who said that Karisma needed more time to file a reply to the petition.

The judge directed counsel for Sanjay Kapur to file a rejoinder to Karisma two days before Aug 26, the next date of hearing.

Initially, the judge suggested that both the parties sit down and settle the dispute amicably. He said reconciliation was the best way to settle a marital dispute. The law, he said, was there for mutual parting of ways.

Counsel for both the parties responded positively to the judges' suggestion but said they first wanted to settle the legal dispute over the passport.

At one stage, counsel for the actress suggested that the court should ask the audience in the courtroom to go out, saying he would then be ready to sit down in the court room and discuss a mutual settlement.

The court also rejected an application by the Women's Welfare Association, an NGO that sought to intervene to help the two parties settle the matter amicably. It said it was a private affair.