New Delhi: The Supreme Court has told Ajit Pawar, who heads a breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party that it should use the ‘clock’ symbol n the Maharashtra polls with a disclaimer.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan told the Maharashtra deputy chief minister that the clock symbol should accompany the note that its use is being contested in court and is subject to the final outcome of Sharad Pawar’s petition, LiveLaw has reported.
After Ajit, Sharad Pawar’s nephew, broke away from the NCP founded by his uncle, the Election Commission of India recognised the latter as the official party based on its legislative majority. The clock symbol of the undivided NCP thus went to Ajit’s faction. The senior Pawar had petitioned the apex court to restrain the Ajit Pawar group from using the symbol in the Lok Sabha polls. He has now similarly petitioned the court to ensure the same before the assembly polls. Pawar has pleaded that the court direct Ajit to file for a new symbol.
Maharashtra is set to go to the polls soon.
Such a direction had also come before the Lok Sabha elections, when the apex court had told the NCP under Ajit Pawar to include this disclaimer in all campaign materials. The court has now asked Ajit Pawar to file an undertaking to say that previous orders will be followed for the assembly polls.
The court had earlier warned of contempt proceedings if its orders were not complied with by Ajit’s faction.
Pawar’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, claimed that posters posted from the official social media handles of Ajit Pawar’s NCP did not comply with the court’s order.
He also referred to a picture of the NCP party office (in Mumbai), taken by his associate Advocate Pranjal Aggarwal, showcasing a banner without a disclaimer, the LiveLaw report noted.
“Nobody should enjoy the goodwill of a symbol which is sub judice,” Singhvi said.
