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Shiv Sena name, symbol challenge to Eknath Shinde faction: Supreme Court lists case on July 31.
Shiv Sena name, symbol challenge to Eknath Shinde faction: Supreme Court lists case on July 31.
The petition filed by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction leader, Uddhav Thackeray, challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allot the ‘Shiv Sena’ name and the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the faction led by the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on July 31.
After being brought up on Monday morning, the petition will be heard on July 31 by a bench that will be presided over by DY Chandrachud, India’s Chief Justice.
In February, the apex court declined to stay a ruling from the Election Commission of India (ECI) that recognised the Eknath Shinde faction as the authentic Shiv Sena and granted that faction permission to use the name “Shiv Sena” as well as the bow and arrow emblem for its political party.
The Court, however, issued notice on the plea by the Uddhav Thackeray faction against a February 17 ECI order.
In the previous year, the Shiv Sena political party fractured into two groups, one of which was led by Thackeray, and the other by Shinde, who went on to succeed Thackeray as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in June 2022.
After that, Shinde submitted a petition to the ECI in which he asserted his ownership of the ‘Shiv Sena’ name and the bow and arrow symbol.
Rather than relying on the results of the test conducted by the organization’s legislative arm, the ECI decided to base its conclusion on the strength of the party’s organisational wing.
The ECI noted that despite the fact that it had made an effort to apply the test of the organisational wing, it was unable to come to any result that was satisfactory due to the fact that the most recent version of the party’s constitution was not on record.
According to the opinion of the ECI, none of the two factions’ claims of having a numerical majority within the organisational wing of the party were adequate.
As a result, it went on to depend on the test of who had the majority in the legislative wing.
As opposed to the Thackeray faction, which only had 15 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), it was reported that the Shinde faction had 40 MLAs.
According to the findings of the ECI, the same pattern was observed in the Lok Sabha, where out of 18 Members of Parliament (MPs), 13 MPs supported the Shinde faction, while just 5 MPs supported the Thackeray group.
As such, the ECI ruled in favour of the Shinde faction and allowed it to retain Shiv Sena name and the bow and arrow symbol.
In related news:
The Supreme Court did not stay the Election Commission’s judgement that recognised Eknath Shinde’s group as the Shiv Sena. This allows Thackeray to employ the “flaming torch” for upcoming bye-elections.
In a related matter, during the process of deciding a case that involved the politics of Maharashtra, a Constitution bench led by the CJI Chandrachud stated that the Speaker and the ECI are authorised to concurrently adjudicate on the petitions that have been brought before them regarding defection and competing claims on who constitutes the actual political party. This was said in the context of deciding a case that involved the politics of Maharashtra.
The Court had previously remarked that in the process of deciding petitions brought under Section 15 of the Symbols Order, the Election Commission of India (ECI) may use a criteria that is best suited to the facts and circumstances of the case that is before it.
