Supreme Court orders Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to publish disclaimer on ‘clock’ symbol
The Supreme Court today directed the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to publish a disclaimer within 36 hours in Marathi and other newspapers, stating that the issue of allocating the “clock” symbol is sub-judice. Founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999, NCP originally used the “clock” as its election symbol before the party split in 2023.
A three-judge bench led by Justice Surya Kant advised both factions to focus on winning voters in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election on November 20. “Don’t waste your energy in courts; instead, go and connect with the voters,” the bench, which also included Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, told the advocates representing both the NCP factions.
Senior advocate Balbir Singh, representing the Ajit Pawar faction, was instructed to publish a prominent disclaimer in newspapers, including Marathi ones, within 36 hours. Singh claimed that the Sharad Pawar faction aimed to disrupt the election process, as candidate nominations had been filed and the withdrawal stage had passed.
On behalf of the Sharad Pawar faction, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the “clock” symbol was associated with Sharad Pawar for 30 years and that the Ajit Pawar faction misused it. Singhvi urged the court to direct the Ajit Pawar-led group to adopt a new symbol.
Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly election, the Supreme Court allowed the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to use the “clock” symbol for publicity, provided they included a disclaimer stating that the matter was sub-judice.
The order came on a petition filed by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, challenging the February 6 order of the Election Commission, recognising the Ajit Pawar-led group as the real NCP.
In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the top court had on March 19 allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to use “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar” as its name along with the symbol of a man blowing “turha”.
