New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- The Supreme Court has imposed costs of Rs 5 lakh each on a lawyer and his former client for using the justice delivery system to pursue a dispute that they themselves had helped create and prolong.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi also upheld the two-year suspension imposed on advocate Rizwan Siddiquee by the Bar Council of India (BCI) for professional misconduct after he disclosed confidential communications with his former client, Rehana Khan, during a television interview.

The Court said the justice system cannot be used by litigants to settle personal scores, salvage their reputations or gain an advantage from a dispute of their own making.

"The machinery of justice is not a fac...