The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Ajit Pawar group after hearing a plea filed by Sharad Pawar group leader Jayant Patil seeking disqualification of the former's MLAs for defecting and joining the Sena-BJP govt.
The two-judge bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, clarified that the contentions about the maintainability of the petition will be decided along with the merits at the stage of final disposal of the case.
The Sharad Pawar group had moved the apex court challenging the Maharashtra Speaker's order rejecting the pleas against the Ajit Pawar group's MLAs.
During the course of the hearing, the apex court also clarified that the appeal of the Sharad Pawar group would be heard later along with the pending petition of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) which challenges the Speaker's refusal to disqualify the MLAs belonging to the Eknath Shinde group.
The apex court said it would take up the matter for further hearing when the Ajit Pawar group files its reply. The court, however, did not fix any date to hear the case, but it is likely that the plea would be heard next after three weeks.
"We will issue notice. All the objections including on grounds of maintainability will be decided during the final disposal in the case," the top court said.
It had in its order on March 19 directed the Ajit Pawar faction to issue a public notice in English, Hindi and Marathi media mentioning in all of its campaign advertisements that the 'clock' symbol allotted to it is subject to the adjudication of the plea filed by the Sharad Pawar-led faction pending before the SC.
The court also directed that the Sharad Pawar group shall only use the name "NCP (Sharad Pawar)" and the symbol "man blowing turha (trumpet)".
The Sharad Pawar group's plea alleged that the Ajit Pawar group has not complied with the court's March 19 direction to publish disclaimers in all their advertisements that the use of the 'clock' symbol by them is sub-judice. It thereby sought initiation of contempt of court against them.
Similarly, Ajit Pawar's faction had also sought a direction to modify its order with respect to the disclaimers in every "pamphlet, advertisement, audio, or video clips issued".
The Sharad Pawar-led faction had on February 12 knocked the doors of the top court challenging the decision of the ECI (Election Commission of India) to recognize the Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP.
In July 2023, the NCP split into two groups after Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit, along with a number of MLAs, joined the ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra.
The Sharad Pawar-led faction, in its petition filed before the top court, challenged the handing over of the clock symbol to the Ajit Pawar faction.
The ECI in its order on February 6 ruled that the Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP and gave the clock symbol to it.
The NCP was formed in June 1999 by Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar after they were expelled from the Indian National Congress (INC) for disputing the right of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi to lead the party.