NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by Uddhav Thackeray's group to stay the Election Commission's February 17 order recognising Eknath Shinde's faction as Shiv Sena with original party symbol of 'bow and arrow'.
The top court, however, agreed to examine Thackeray's plea against the EC's order and issued notice to the Shinde group.
Thackeray group led by senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat and advocate Amit Anand Tiwari made repeated requests to the court to stay the order as Shinde group had started taking over the party offices and bank accounts, which may create a law and order problem.
Brushing aside their request, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said, "They have succeeded before the EC. We can't stay the order at this stage."
However, the court permitted Thackeray's group to retain the name of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) with flaming torch symbol till further orders.
Thackeray group also submitted before the court that since Shinde group has been recognised as Shiv Sena, it may start disqualification proceedings against them.
Senior advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Mahesh Jethmalani and Maninder Singh on behalf of Shinde's group said they would not precipitate any such action.
The court asked Shinde's group to file a response to the petition within two weeks. It allowed Thackeray's group to file a rejoinder a week thereafter.
During the arguments, Sibal contended the EC had relied upon the majority in legislative wing to grant Shinde group as party name Shiv Sena while disregarding the majority in organisational wing.
Kaul, for his part, raised the question on maintainability of the plea, saying the petitioners have twice approached the Delhi High Court on the issue and denied any relief, so the top court should not directly hear their plea against the EC's order.
On February 17, the Election Commission, in its final order, said the party name Shiv Sena and symbol would be retained by Shinde, present Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
In June, 2022, Shinde, along with his supporting MLAs, had joined hands with the BJP, resulting into collapse of Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
