SC to examine Sharad Pawar's plea against order on allotment of party name, symbol to Ajit Pawar group

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine a plea by Sharad Pawar, the patriarch of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) against the Election Commission's decision to recognise the group led by Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar as the real political party.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Vishwanathan ordered that the interim order by the EC allowing the petitioner the right to use 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharad Chandra Pawar' would continue till further orders. 

The court allowed the petitioner to approach the EC for allocation of symbol, saying it shall be allotted within one week of filing the application.

The bench issued notice to the Ajit Pawar group on the plea seeking its response within two weeks.

The court posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi for Pawar contended the court should allow the use of the party name and they give the petitioner the symbol.

"In this case, in an interim order, they have said that the Ajit Pawar side is the real NCP, but for the Rajya Sabha elections, Sharad Pawar can use the name as a one-time measure, it should be allowed to continue... Maharashtra Assembly election is starting from Tuesday," he said.

Singhvi said, "It is astonishing, my symbol was clock and party name NCP but gave me interim symbol for the purpose of Rajya Sabha elections. It is an absurd situation."

He said it was strange that Sharad Pawar group has to obey whip by Ajit Pawar faction.

The court, however, decided to consider the matter and scheduled it for hearing after three weeks.

In the petition, Sharad Pawar challenged the poll panel's decision of February 6, recognising the group by Ajit Pawar as the NCP and awarding it party symbol of 'Clock'.

The plea has been filed through advocate Abhishek Jebraj.

Ajit Pawar's group has already filed a caveat in the matter.

Following more than 10 hearings spread over more than 6 months, the EC applied the test of legislative majority to let the Ajit Pawar faction exercise control over NCP and symbol, having noted disputed internal organisational elections.

The poll panel also used the “test of aims and objectives of the party constitution”, the “test of the party constitution” to come to its conclusion.

Sharad Pawar is uncle of Ajit Pawar and has founded the NCP.

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. 

On February 15, 2024, in an another setback to Sharad Pawar group, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled that Ajit Pawar's group was the real NCP.

The Speaker had declared the events that unfolded between June 30 and July 2, 2023 were clearly in the nature of intra-party dissent within the NCP and the members of the party stood divided between two leaders. He had rejected the disqualification petitions against each other's group.