Maharashtra polls: Ajit Pawar can have the ‘clock’ for now—with a disclaimer

The Supreme Court on 24 October, Thursday, directed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to use the "clock" symbol in its publicity material in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections with a disclaimer that the matter was sub-judice before it.

Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order on a plea filed by the rival Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, which had issued a notice to the Ajit Pawar-led faction.

The top court on 19 March and 4 April had directed the Ajit Pawar-led faction to issue a public notice in the newspapers in English, Hindi and Marathi editions, notifying that the allocation of the clock symbol was sub judice. The apex court had further said the Ajit faction was permitted to use the symbol subject to the case's final outcome.

During the proceedings on Thursday, the bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Sharad Pawar faction. Singhvi submitted the opponent group should be restrained from using the clock symbol as it didn't use the disclaimer in their campaign materials and "misled" voters.

"They have been blatantly not using the disclaimer. They want to piggyback on me. Nobody should enjoy the goodwill of the symbol which is sub judice," submitted Singhvi.

The SC directed Ajit Pawar to file a fresh undertaking over its 19 March and 4 April directions to issue a public notice — saying that "the NCP's 'clock' symbol is sub judice" — that the court's direction was being meticulously complied with even during the process of the state assembly elections.

"File a fresh undertaking as well that you have not violated our directions in the past and till the end of elections. If there is any violation, we will take note of it. We expect both sides to comply with our directions. Please don't create an embarrassing situation," the bench said.

Singhvi said the Ajit Pawar group should be allocated a new symbol for the assembly elections.

Senior advocate Balbir Singh, appearing for Ajit Pawar, opposed Singhvi's submissions and said all pamphlets and campaign materials contained the disclaimers as directed by the court.

"They are showing false documents. We have given disclaimers in our publicity material. They came up with the same allegations during the Lok Sabha polls which was rejected. I am willing to file all documents and pamphlets," Singh said.

The matter has been posted for further hearing on 6 November.

Sharad Pawar moved the apex court against a 6 February order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognising the Ajit Pawar-led group as the 'real' NCP.

The ECI had allotted the NCP's clock symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar. The undivided NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, had the clock as its election symbol before its split as well.

On 19 March, the top court allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to use 'Nationalist Congress Party–Sharadchandra Pawar' as its name, along with the symbol of a man blowing a turha, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the country.

It had passed the order on a plea by the Sharad Pawar group seeking to restrain the Ajit Pawar faction from using the clock symbol for the polls, as allotted by the ECI, on the grounds that it was disrupting the level playing field.

The SC had observed the name and photographs of Sharad Pawar could not be used by the Ajit Pawar faction for political gains.

On 19 February, the top court had also directed the continuation of the ECI order allotting 'Nationalist Congress Party—Sharadchandra Pawar' as the party name for the Sharad Pawar faction.

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar had on 15 February held the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar to be the 'real NCP' and said the anti-defection provisions in the Constitution couldn't be used to stifle internal dissent.

Sharad Pawar had founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999, after their expulsion from the Congress.

Ajit Pawar had walked away with a majority of the NCP MLAs in July 2023, and supported the BJP–Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde.