New Delhi: The Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud, on Wednesday issued a notice on petition filed by Uddhav Thackeray faction against the Election Commission of India (ECI) order recognising Eknath Shinde as the "real Shiv Sena" party and granting them the party symbol of bow and arrow.
The bench also comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala told Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Uddhav faction that they would entertain their plea, however, refused to stay the ECI order. "They have succeeded before the Election Commission. We can't stay the order at this stage," said CJI Chandrachud.
The court sought a counter affidavit from Eknath Shinde's faction on the matter and adjourned the case for hearing again after two weeks. Sibal sought directions to Shinde faction to restrain from taking over assets and bank accounts of Shiv Sena in Parliament and state assembly but the court said that it cannot entertain such prayer at this stage.
Sibal said that Shinde group would not issue a whip now but Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul appearing for Shinde faction said that they would not do anything to precipitate the matter. The dispute over the name between Uddhav Thackrey and Eknath Shinde faction started last year in June when Shinde replaced Thackrey as the Maharashtra Chief Minister after Shiv Sena split into two factions. Both wanted the name and the symbol.
Last week, the Election Commission recognised Eknath Shinde's faction as the "real Shiv Sena" and granted the symbol to it. ECI in its order relied on the test of majority to grant the name and symbol. Shinde faction had the support of 40 out of 67 MLAs and MLCs in Maharashtra and 13 out of 22 MPs in Parliament. The EC said that Shinde group had secured 76% of the votes against 23.5% secured by Thackerey group.
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