SC warns, asks Ajit faction for order compliance proof

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Ajit Pawar's faction of the NCP to provide details of how many newspaper advertisements were published by it since the court's March 19 order regarding the use of the 'clock' symbol.

This came as the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar petitioned the SC accusing the Ajit faction (which has been officially recognised as NCP by the Election Commission of India) of violating the top court's order of March 19.

The SC in its last order had directed the Ajit faction to issue a public declaration that the use of 'clock' symbol by it for campaigning in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections is "sub-judice and subject to the outcome" of the challenge by the Sharad Pawar faction to the decision of EC.


Following an urgent mentioning of the matter by Sharad Pawar's counsel, a division bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan warned the Ajit faction of a serious view in case of non-compliance of court's order.

The bench verbally said that it "might be required to take a view if he (Ajit Pawar) is behaving like this". It further added that "nobody has a right to deliberately misconstrue our order. The order is not very complicated. It is in simple language".

Appearing on behalf of Sharad Pawar, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that Ajit Pawar has moved an application for relaxing the court's March 19 order. Opposing the application, Singhvi said that moving the application not only means that they (Ajit Pawar faction) has not complied with court's directions but also that Ajit Pawar is asking for a review of the SC March 19 order.

On March 19, the SC had directed the Ajit Pawar's faction to issue a public notice in newspapers in English, Marathi and Hindi editions with a disclaimer that the matter of allocation of 'clock' symbol to it is sub-judice.