The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave 36 hours to Ajit Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to publish disclaimer in all prominent sections of newspapers, including Marathi dailies that the party's clock symbol is sub-judice matter. The order comes even as both factions prepare for upcoming Assembly elections on November 20.
Senior Advocate Balbir Singh appearing for the NCP chief Ajit Pawar assured the top court that within 36 hours, he will publish a disclaimer in prominent sections of newspapers stating that the use of the clock symbol by the NCP remains a sub-judice matter.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the said order in an application filed by the Sharad Pawar group seeking to restrain the Ajit Pawar group from using the 'clock' symbol in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
Senior Advocate Abhishek M Singhvi appearing for the Sharad Pawar faction contended in court that Ajit Pawar's party is still flouting the previous orders of the Supreme Court, where the Ajit Pawar's NCP was directed to include a disclaimer in all the campaign materials that the use of the 'clock' symbol is subject to the result of the litigation.
Singhivi told the court that March 19 order of the top court is not being followed by Ajit Pawar's NCP and they are still playing videos of Sharad Pawar and calling him their God. He said that Ajit Pawar's party is trying to piggyback on Sharad Pawar's name to get votes.
However, Ajit Pawar's counsel dismissed these as "wild allegations."
On March 19, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections the Supreme Court had allowed the Ajit Pawar faction to use the clock symbol with a few conditions.
The court had asked Ajit Pawar faction of NCP to issue public notice in newspapers in Hindi, Marathi and English, notifying that the allocation of clock symbol is subjudice before this court and they have only been permitted to use the symbol subject to this court's final order.
In the same order, the court had asked the Election Commission of Maharashtra to recognise the symbol of 'man blowing a trumpet' and party name NCP-Sharad Chandra Pawar for the purpose of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
On February 6, the ECI recognised Ajit Pawar's faction as the real NCP and allotted the NCP symbol 'Wall Clock' to Ajit Pawar's faction.
The ECI noted that both factions were found to be working outside the party constitution and organisational elections. Consequently, the test of majority in the legislative wing favoured Ajit Pawar's faction.
The ECI had then given the Sharad Pawar-led group a "one-time option" to claim a name for its political outfit and provide three preferences in view.
The Maharashtra Speaker had ruled that the faction headed by Ajit Pawar is the real NCP. The Speaker's decision was based on the factor of legislative majority. Ajit Pawar had the support of 41 MLAs of the party. A plea challenging this order by the Speaker is still pending before the Supreme Court.
Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Maharashtra government after he rebelled against his uncle and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar walked away with a majority of NCP MLAs in July 2023, and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government led by Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra.