The Supreme Court on Wednesday wanted to know from the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, which has been declared as the real NCP, whether it has complied with its order against using the name of Sharad Pawar and putting a disclaimer on the use of the 'clock' symbol during the campaign.
A two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice Surya Kant and also comprising Justice KV Viswanathan, cautioned the Ajit Pawar group that a serious view will be taken if its order was defied and not complied with properly.
During the course of the hearing, the apex court made it clear that no one has a right to "deliberately misconstrue its order" passed on March 19, which was worded in 'simple language' leaving no room for misinterpretation.
The SC asked the Ajit Pawar faction to apprise it on the disclaimer issue after hearing a plea filed by the Sharad Pawar group alleging that the former has not complied with the court's March 19 direction to publish disclaimers in all their advertisements that the use of 'clock' symbol by them is a sub-judice matter.
The Supreme Court asked the Ajit Pawar group to show how many advertisements were published after the court order of March 19.
The top court in its order on March 19 had 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 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 hd 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, forcing the Sharad Pawar-led group to seek relief from the apex court.
The Sharad Pawar 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 faction was 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) in May 1999 for disputing the right of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi to lead the party.
