The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay it, giving a blow to Uddhav Thackeray Election Commission’s order recognizing the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotting it the “bow and arrow” election symbol. The top court also issued notice to the Shinde group on their appeal against the poll panel’s decision.
Hearing a petition filed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today, the apex court allowed the Thackeray faction to use the name ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’ and ‘flaming torch’ as election symbols in the state bypolls to be held on February 26. permitted to.
It refused to grant interim relief of status quo on properties and bank accounts, saying though it was considering Thackeray’s plea, it “cannot stay an order at this stage as they have been successful before the Election Commission”. “
The legal battle began soon after Shinde’s defection to the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June last year.
No respite for the Uddhav Thackeray camp
The Supreme Court did not give any relief to the Thackeray camp despite the party’s assets and its bank accounts being saved from being taken over by the Shinde faction.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, assisted by advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, on behalf of Thackeray, urged the court to order status quo on the party’s properties and bank accounts as the Shinde faction is taking everything on the ground that they are now the real Shiv Sena. .
Whether the (EC) order contains any direction regarding bank accounts and properties? asked the bench, also comprising Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala.
“No, no,” Sibal replied, “but, they will say they are the real party and will take care of everything. Rather they are doing so.”
“Mr Sibal, if something is part of the EC order then we can definitely see. It does not make out…the order of the Election Commission is confined to the allotment of symbols. Now it is not possible for us to go further than this… Equally, now that they have succeeded after being heard before the Election Commission, we cannot pass an order which would have the effect of staying the order without hearing them Yes,” the bench said.
However, there were some positive results for the Thackeray faction, as senior advocate NK Kaul, appearing for the Shinde block, assured the bench that it would not take steps like issuing a whip or initiating disqualification proceedings against lawmakers – MLAs, MLCs and MPs Will not pick up Currently Thackeray faction
The assurance came after senior advocate AM Singhvi, who was also appearing for Thackeray, said, “Tomorrow, if they issue whip or letter and if we don’t, we will be disqualified. Now they are party. I don’t have any security. Your Lordship should at least give us the status quo. This led the bench to ask, “If we take it (the petition up for hearing) after two weeks, are you in the process of issuing a whip or disqualifying them.” “No, no,” replied Kaul.
Shinde will remain the ‘main leader’ of Shiv Sena
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will remain the “main leader” of the Shiv Sena, it was decided at its first national executive meeting held in Mumbai on 21 February.
The apex court had on Tuesday agreed to hear the Thackeray camp’s plea against the Election Commission’s decision.
The Election Commission on Friday recognized the Eknath Shinde-faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allotment of the bow and arrow election symbol to the undivided party founded by late Balasaheb Thackeray.
In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the ‘flaming torch’ election symbol allotted to it till the completion of the assembly bypolls in the state.
The commission noted that the MLAs supporting Shinde got about 76 per cent votes in favor of the 55 winning candidates of the Shiv Sena in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The three-member commission said that the MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray camp got 23.5 per cent votes in favor of the victorious Shiv Sena candidates.
(With PTI inputs)
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