New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Ajit Pawar faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to bring on record details of advertisements published in newspapers in compliance with its order. The apex court had instructed the Ajit Pawar faction to put a disclaimer that allocation of 'clock' symbol to it is sub judice, in the publicity material.
A bench led by Justice Surya Kant told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the faction led by the Maharashtra deputy chief minister, “you have 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, also comprising Justice KV Viswanathan, asked Rohatgi to furnish the details of advertisements issued after the Sharad Pawar faction alleged that they were not complying with the order passed by the apex court on March 19.
The bench pointed out that the order was "in a simple language", therefore there was no room for any double interpretation.
During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Sharad Pawar group, submitted before the bench that a detailed order was passed by the court on March 19, but there is non-compliance on the part of Ajit Pawar. Singhvi also informed the bench that an application had been moved to that effect.
Singhvi submitted that an application for relaxing this order had been moved by the other side, and protested against it. Singhvi pressed that it means that the other side is asking for a review of the order.
He insisted that elections are going to begin soon and now the court should not entertain such a review. Singhvi contended that the court had passed a reasoned order and this cannot be changed, “we are in the middle of a hot period of elections.”
Rohatgi took the bench through certain advertisements, which carried the required disclaimer. He submitted, “I am saying that in the future modify the last line…how is this man saying that the Supreme Court has decided the matter.”
The bench made it clear that the court is confident with the order passed and that has to be complied with and nobody has a right to deliberately misconstrue the court's order. The apex court has scheduled the matter for a hearing tomorrow.
The apex court, on March 19, 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 is sub judice before the court and the respondent has been permitted to use the same subject to final outcome of these proceedings. The apex court had said that such a declaration shall be incorporated in every pamphlet, advertisement, audio or video clip to be issued by the respondent (NCP) political party.
