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Synopsis

Nationalist Congress Party's founder Sharad Pawar has asked the Supreme Court to direct the Ajit Pawar faction to apply for fresh symbol for limited purpose for contesting the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra, in view of pendency of matter on control of the party name and its symbol 'Clock'.

The plea claimed that during the recently concluded Indian General Elections (Lok Sabha), where the petitioner contested on ‘Man Blowing Turha’ symbol and Respondent No 1 (Ajit Pawar) on the ‘Clock’ symbol, registered voters on the ground were faced with immense confusion and dilemma in respect of who represented the party.

"This confusion inevitably resulted in Ajit Pawar securing unfair electoral gains and the petitioner suffering loss of votes in the said elections," the plea stated.

In fact, Ajit Pawar has been leveraging upon the existing confusion in the minds of the people due to long standing association between the ‘Clock’ symbol and the petitioner, it further claimed.

Among the grounds listed by the plea are to protect the sanctity of the matter during its pendency especially in light of a "patently illegal Impugned Order", which is contrary to the decision of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai Vs Principal Secretary, Governor of Maharashtra (2023).

This is also necessary to ensure fairness and a level playing field by omitting any confusion in the minds of the electorate in relation to the “Clock” symbol reserved for the Nationalist Congress Party and the 25 year-long synonymity of the petitioner with it, as its National President, the plea stated.

"To ensure fair and proper participation of the petitioner in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections to uphold the basic tenets of free and fair elections; In appreciation of the fact that the degree of confusion amongst the the voters was prevalent in the recent concluded Parliamentary Elections," it said.

The plea claimed the confusion would potentially be greater in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections due to the relatively smaller size of the constituencies. Moreover, the degree of confusion is directly proportional to the impact on the electorate and hence possesses a greater propensity in disrupting the conduct of free and fair elections,it alleged.

It was also essential to rule out the possibility of Ajit Pawar or any other bad faith actors intending to leverage upon the existing and apparent confusion in the minds of the people, the plea stated.

Sharad Pawar approached the Supreme Court challenging the ECI's decision in favour of Ajit Pawar, who broke away from the Sharad Pawar camp to join the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra with eight NCP MLAs.

The ECI had on February 6, 2024 ruled that Ajit Pawar's faction was the real NCP and permitted the faction to use the 'clock' symbol for the party. In its order, ECI said total number of NCP MLAs in Maharashtra State assembly stood at 81, out of which, Ajit Pawar submitted affidavits of 57 MLAs in his support while Sharad Pawar had only 28 affidavits.

On March 19, 2024 the Supreme Court had allowed Ajit Pawar led NCP faction to provisionally use the clock symbol for its party. Furthermore, court had directed the Election Commission of India to provisionally recognise the NCP led by Sharad Pawar for the purpose of contesting upcoming Lok Sabha and state elections.

On April 4, 2024, the Supreme Court directed Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party faction to not use the 'clock symbol' which has been provisionally allotted to the Ajit Pawar group, which was directed to use it with a disclaimer in all publicity materials.

Case Title: Sharad Pawar vs. Ajit Pawar