NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Ajit Pawar faction of Nationalist Congress Party to apprise if it has complied with its previous order against using name of Sharad Pawar and putting a disclaimer on use of 'Clock' symbol in publicity materials during the election campaign.
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A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Vishwanathan made it clear that nobody has a right to deliberately misconstrue its order when it was plain and simple and there was no room for double interpretation.
The court asked the Ajit Pawar group to bring on record details of advertisements published in newspapers in compliance with its order.
The court had on March 19 directed the Ajit Pawar faction to put a disclaimer in the publicity materials that allocation of 'clock' symbol to it was sub judice.
"You get your instructions on how many advertisements were issued after this order. We might be required to take a view if he (Ajit Pawar) is behaving like this. Nobody has a right to deliberately misconstrue our order," the bench told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the faction led by the Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister.
The court posed its query after the Sharad Pawar faction represented by senior advocate A M Singhvi alleged that they were not complying with the order passed by the apex court on March 19.
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The bench said that the order was "in a simple language" and there was no room for misconstruing it.
Singhvi contended the detailed and reasoned order was passed by the court but there was non-compliance on the part of Ajit Pawar.
He said that an application for relaxing this order had been moved by the other side, in a bid to seek review of the order.
"We are in the middle of a hot period of elections. The court should not entertain such a review," he said.
Rohatgi, for his part, took the bench through certain advertisements, which carried the required disclaimer.
“I am saying that in the future modify the last line. How is this man saying that the Supreme Court has decided the matter,” he asked.
The bench said that nobody has a right to deliberately misconstrue the court's order and fixed the matter for hearing on Thursday.
On March 14, the court had asked the Ajit Pawar group as to why it was keen to use photo of Sharad Pawar in posters in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections after parting ways with the founder of the party.
Sharad Pawar had challenged the Election Commission's decision of February 6, recognising the group by Ajit Pawar as the NCP and awarding it party symbol of 'Clock'.
Sharad Pawar is uncle of Ajit Pawar and has founded the NCP.
In a big setback to party patriarch and his mentor Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and eight other legislators of the NCP joined Maharashtra’s ruling coalition of Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and BJP in July, 2023.
Also Read - Give us categorical, unconditional undertaking against use of Sharad Pawar's photo, SC to Ajit Pawar group
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