Pay costs of Rs 15L for dud cheque, court tells Azhar

NEW DELHI: Even as Congress MP Mohammad Azharuddin reached an out-of-court settlement in a cheque bounce case filed against him, his non-appearance before the court on Wednesday irked the judge, who slapped a cost of Rs 15 lakh on him for showing “utter disdain” to it by not appearing and “wasting” the judicial time.
Metropolitan magistrate Vikrant Vaid imposed the cost after being informed by the former cricketer’s counsel that he had amicably arrived at an out-of-court settlement.“If settlement had to be done, it could have been done on the first date itself,” the court said. tnn