The Supreme Court refused to stay the Election Commission’s decision to assign the Shiv Sena party name and the bow and arrow symbol to the Eknath Shinde-led group, recognising it as the real Shiv Sena based on its strength in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra assembly.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala constituted after curtailing proceedings before a five-judge constitution bench, also declined to restrain the Shinde group from taking over the assets and bank accounts of the Shiv Sena, which in turn could lead to a squeeze on the financial resources of the Thackeray faction.
Shinde camp may not push for rivals’ disqualification
The SC bench accepted senior advocate Devadatt Kamat’s plea to allow the Thackeray group to continue with the EC’s interim arrangement of using the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) name and flaming torch symbol till further orders. The SC also allowed Thackeray group to use the name and flaming torch symbol till completion of by elections to the Chinchwad and Kasba Peth assembly constituencies.
For the Shinde faction, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani said there was an earlier agreement between the two groups not to precipitate the cross disqualification proceedings filed against legislators of rival factions. The Shinde faction has the support of 40 of 55 MLAs in the assembly and 13 of the 19 Lok Sabha MPs.