- The Uddhav Thackeray faction has moved the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India (ECI) order of February 17 recognising Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and granting permission to them to use the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the bow and arrow symbol for their party.
- The matter was mentioned on behalf of Thackeray faction by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi before Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud for urgent listing.
- However, the CJI refused to pass any direction since the matter was not part of today’s mentioning list.
- “Sorry. You have to come under the mentioning list. Come tomorrow,” the CJI said.
- The Election Commission’s order was passed on a plea by Shinde faction seeking decision on which is the real Shiv Sena – the Shinde camp or the Thackeray camp.
- “The party name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the party symbol ‘bow and arrow’ will be retained by the petitioner faction,” the order had said.
- The ECI had passed the following directions:
- – The party name “Shiv Sena” and the party symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be retained by the petitioner faction;
- – The name of “Balasahebanchi ShivSena” and symbol of “Two Swords and Shield”, which was allotted to the petitioner by way of the interim order dated October 11, 22 in this dispute case will henceforth be frozen with immediate effect and will not be used;
- – The petitioner is directed to amend the 2018- Constitution of the party in line with section 29 A of the RP Act, 1951 and extant guidelines issued by the Commission on registration of political parties inter-alia conforming to internal democracy;
- – In view of the ongoing bye-elections for 205- Chinchwad, and 215- Kasba Peth of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the respondent faction, which was allotted the name of “Shivsena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)” and symbol of “Flaming Torch as per the interim order dated October 10, 22 of the Commission in this dispute case, is hereby allowed to retain the said name and the symbol till completion of the said bye-elections.
- The ECI had relied upon the strength of the legislative wing of the party to arrive at its decision instead of the relying on test of organisational wing.
- This, the ECI said, was because though it attempted to apply the test of organisational wing, it could not come to any satisfactory conclusion because the latest Constitution of the party was not on record.
- The respective claims of numerical majority in organisational wing by both factions is not satisfactory, the ECI had underlined.
- Hence, it had proceeded to rely on the test of majority in the legislative wing.
- The Shinde faction was noted to have 40 MLAs as against the Thackeray faction’s 15 MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
- Likewise, in the Lok Sabha too, out of 18 Members of Parliament, 13 were in support of Shinde faction, while only 5 were in support of Thackeray faction.
- Hence, based on the above, the ECI had ruled in favour of Shinde faction and allowed it to retain Shiv Sena name and the bow and arrow symbol.
- The case has its genesis in the split of the Shiv Sena political party into two factions, one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde, who went on to replace Thackeray as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister after the split in June 2022.
- The Thackeray and Shinde factions have both laid claim to the party name of Shiv Sena and its symbol.
- A separate batch of petitions is also pending before the top court in relation to the political crisis of 2022 which had led to a change in power in the Western State.
- The Court in that case is considering various issues including powers of the Governor of a State and speaker of a legislative assembly and the scope of speaker’s role to initiate disqualification proceedings against MLAs.
