New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 24) issued notice to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and others on application filed by Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the use of symbol “clock” of the undivided party.
A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, while hearing a plea by the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP alleging that the Ajit Pawar faction was not complying with the top court’s directions, directed Ajit Pawar to file a fresh undertaking over its directions issued in March 19 and April 4 orders to issue a public notice saying ‘clock’ symbol of NCP is sub-judice was being meticulously complied with even during the process of the Maharashtra assembly elections.
What did apex court direct earlier?
The top court had earlier directed the Ajit Pawar faction to issue advertisements in English, Hindi and Marathi editions stating that the allocation of ‘clock’ symbol to it is sub judice before the apex court and it was permitted to use the same subject to final outcome of the proceedings in court on a plea filed by Sharad Pawar.
The order of the top court came on a plea by the Sharad Pawar faction of NCP seeking to restrain the rival Ajit Pawar faction from using the ‘clock’ symbol for the elections, as allotted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to the Ajit Pawar faction, on the ground that it is disrupting the level playing field.
Apex court earlier allowed Sharad Pawar faction to use ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as its name
The top court had on March 19 allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to use ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as its name for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls and had asked the ECI to consider to allot the faction a symbol within one week if the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP approaches it for allocation of symbol. The faction was later allotted the symbol ‘man blowing turha’.
Sharad Pawar faction of NCP moved apex court against ECI order declaring Ajit Pawar faction as real NCP
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction had moved the top court against the verdict of the Election Commission of India (ECI) holding the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the real NCP and allotting the NCP’s election symbol, “clock”, to the Ajit Pawar faction.
