NEW DELHI, June 27: In a veiled threat the Supreme Court today gave an ultimatum to the Janata Dal that it will be forced to pass an ``adverse order'' tomorrow if the complaints about alleged irregularities in the electoral college for the party's presidential election was not disposed of by this evening.The threat was held out by a vacation bench comprising Justice S C Sen and Justice S P Kurdurkar to the two observers appointed by the court to conduct the election by July 3 after party general secretary Bapu Kaldate informed the court about differences of opinion between Madhu Dandavate and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on the issue.Meanwhile, the two observers today got down to the business of looking into the complaints of the irregularities in the voters' list, thwarting moves by the Laloo Prasad Yadav camp to delay the poll exercise.Raghuvansh Singh, a Laloo camp follower and observer for the poll, had little option but to toe the line of Madhu Dandavate. Dandavate had been stressing that the election exercise should be completed by July 3 as specified by the Supreme Court.Singh until yesterday was insisting that the time-frame fixed by the apex court was too short for going into the complaints about the irregularities in the electoral college.He had also indicated that he would approach the court for an extension in the hope that the extra time could be used to try and force the election of Laloo Yadav without a contest. This was opposed by Dandavate who was of the view that the party should adhere to the deadline.Sensing the rival camp's strategy, Sharad Yadav's supporters ensured that the minutes of the two observers' meeting are recorded. In the second meeting, Singh however agreed to look into the complaints.Today, party general secretary Bapu Kaldate put these minutes before the apex court which said it would be constrained to serve an ``adverse order'' if the poll exercise was delayed.Laloo's supporters however termed the scrutiny of complaints by the two observers a farce. They alleged that the observers were refusing to look into their complaints, saying they would examine only those that had already been received.Party sources said the two would be completing the exercise and giving a report tomorrow to the Supreme Court which had said that in the event of an amicable settlement of the complaints about irregularities in the electoralcollege the matter would end there.In an urgent application moved this morning Kaldate expressed doubts on the holding of poll by the deadline and prayed for directions from the court to ensure election was held to avoid derecognition of the party. Though the judges heard arguments on Kaldate's application for over 40 minutes this morning they reserved orders stating that they would pronounce their decision in the afternoon.As soon as the court assembled after lunch, the judges told the counsel for the two parties, returning officer P K Samantray and Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, that though they had drafted directions they had decided to defer passing it till tomorrow.``In view of the minutes of the second meeting between the two observers held yesterday regarding the issue (where Singh had relented on his decision to bring about unanimous election) we have decided not to pass drastic orders,'' the judges observed even as they held out a threat that they will do so if the party does not get along with the disposal of complaints on the voters list today.The judges made it clear that if the matters were settled amicably between the two factions the court will leave it at that and not pronounce orders tomorrow.The judges observed they had taken a serious view of the opinion expressed by Singh in the minutes of the first meeting of the two observersHe however preferred not to pass any order today to give the party a final chance to sort out the issue regarding voters list as well as the venue for the poll.``We are here to see that the court's order to hold the poll before July 3 is obeyed by the observers and the party,'' the judges made it clear.Asking the party leaders not to compel the court to pass any adverse order tomorrow the judges said once the vexed issue of voter lists' irregularities are disposed of by the observers today the rest of the election schedule leading to the poll was a mechanical process.The judges said they were ending today's proceedings with the hope that things would be sorted out by the deadline this evening failing which the court ``will have to do something about it tomorrow''.If necessary the judges said they would sit tomorrow again and pass an adverse order.
