HC plans to impose costs on petitioner

Madras High Court has proposed to impose costs on a petitioner for filing without locus standi, a habeas corpus writ petition praying for a direction to the police to produce Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati in court and to set him at liberty. In his petition, Wilfred Prakash said the arrest and detention of Jayendra Saraswati were illegal. When the court wanted to know the petitioner’s locus standi, his counsel said his client was ‘‘next friend’’ to the Shankaracharya.