Following the Supreme Court’s nod to the conduct of local body elections in the State of Maharashtra on May 6, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Wednesday sought an urgent hearing of its petition challenging the Election Commission of India’s decision to recognise the Eknath Shinde faction as the official Shiv Sena and grant them the ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol.
The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal before a Bench led by Justice Surya Kant.
Relying on the Supreme Court’s 2023 Constitution verdict, which held that the legislative majority could not be used as a criterion to decide on which faction was the real party, Sibal said the Election Commission decided solely based on the test of legislative majority.
When the Bench expressed the likelihood of the plea being taken up after the summer vacations, Sibal said he was not relying upon anything other than the Constitution Bench judgment.
Noting that Shiv Sena (UBT) had been given a symbol, the Bench asked the party to contest the elections based on the same.
The Senior Advocate, however, contended that the original symbol of Shiv Sena was given to the Eknath Shinde group.
The top court of the country observed that the right of Shiv Sena (UBT) would be subject to the outcome of the petition.
Sibal, however, said that elections would be held in the meantime. He pointed out that the same relief was granted in the NCP case.
The Bench pointed out that in the NCP case, the Court had made an interim arrangement and put a lot of conditions.
In local bodies, mostly voters did not support a symbol, it said, adding that elections should be held smoothly.
Sibal pressed for the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict.
The Bench assured that if it found urgency in the plea, the matter would be listed during vacations.
The post Election symbol row: Shiv Sena (UBT) seeks urgent hearing of plea challenging Election Commission decision in Supreme Court appeared first on India Legal.