New Delhi: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the decks for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s petition staking claim over the “real” Shiv Sena and the party symbol, dismissing a plea by the Uddhav Thackeray camp to restrain the poll body from adjudicating on the matter, media reports said.
“We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission of India. The IA (interlocutory application) is accordingly dismissed,” ordered a Constitution bench, headed by Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.
Gold Rate
Saturday18 Jan. 2025
Dealing a blow to Uddhav Thackeray who had to resign on June 29 following a dramatic turn of events sparked off by a group of rebel MLAs led by Shinde, the five-judge bench passed a brief order while rejecting his faction’s vehement plea to stop ECI from deciding the CM’s petition.
According to reports, the bench, which included Justices MB Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha, heard a battery of lawyers from the two sides for almost five hours before giving a go ahead to ECI. Although no formal order was passed by the top court to restrain ECI, on two occasions in August, the poll body was orally asked by a previous bench to stay its hands and not proceed with Shinde’s plea on recognition of his faction as the “real” Shiv Sena and allotting it the bow-and-arrow symbol. The previous three-judge bench had said that the application by the Uddhav camp to hold back ECI will be considered by the Constitution bench.
The court nod to ECI on Tuesday will lead to resumption of the proceedings before the statutory body under Para 15 of the 1968 Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order. On July 19, Shinde instituted the proceedings before ECI, which issued a notice to Uddhav Thackeray three days later. Subsequently, the Uddhav camp moved the application before the top court to prevent ECI from proceeding under the Symbols Order, and the court orally asked the poll body to wait till the application is decided.
While Shinde welcomed the verdict, saying “we have never done anything outside the purview of the law”, the Thackeray faction said the battle is “important for democracy and the constitution”.
Arguing for the Uddhav camp on Tuesday, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi emphasised that the proceedings before ECI would render the pending judicial proceedings meaningless. The senior lawyers contended that when the entire gamut of disputes over the disqualification of MLAs from the respective factions and the validity of Shinde’s takeover as the state CM were yet to be decided by the top court, it is imperative that ECI stays its hand. According to them, Shinde and his MLAs have no right to approach ECI and stake claim to the party since they have already given up the membership of Shiv Sena by their anti-party activities and hobnobbing with a rival party.
