"Since there is no official limit to the number of Ashok Chakra and other awardees, we will have to wait for the formal announcement," the Delhi police's Public Relations Officer Rajan Bhagat told rediff.com on Wednesday.

While President Pratibha Patil [Images] and several other leaders have praised Sharma, who is said to have been recommended for a Shaurya Chakra, others, including Union Minister Arjun Singh [Images], have called for an investigation into the shootout.

Though the Centre has cleared some names -- the National Security Guard's Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajendra Singh and the Mumbai [Images] police's Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble, all slain in combatting terrorists in Mumbai -- for the highest peacetime award, it is said that lobbies have sprung up to get their favourites in the list.

The highest number of Ashok Chakras awarded in any given year is three on January 26, 2002, a month after terrorists attacked Parliament, killing six Delhi policemen.