SC imposes Rs 1L cost on advocate for plea against Odisha CM

The Supreme Court today slapped a cost of Rs one lakh on an advocate and dismissed his petition seeking to make Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik an accused in a coal block allocation scam case.
The court termed the petition as "frivolous and vexatious" by questioning the locus standi of the advocate in the case.
A bench comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and C Nagappan said the petition was filed as a "mala fide action" by Delhi- based advocate N K Sahoo.
The bench was first inclined to impose a cost of Rs 25 lakh but reduced it to Rs one lakh on repeated pleas by the lawyer.

He had filed the appeal against the Special CBI Court's March 11 order in which Patnaik was not summoned as accused along with six persons, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, whose Hindalco company was controversially allocated Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005.
The apex court on April 1 had stayed the trial court order summoning Singh and others as accused. The entire proceedings in the case have also been stayed.