SC refuses to stay EC's order in Shiv Sena case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay Election Commission's order which recognised the Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and allocated the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

The apex court issued notice to the Shinde camp on the petition filed by Uddhav Thackeray against the Election Commission order and asked it to file a reply to the petition.

However, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala granted Uddhav camp to retain the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the symbol "flaming torch" for the bye-elections in Chinchwad and Kasba Peth which is scheduled to be held on February 26.

"The ECI order is confined to a symbol. Now we cannot pass an order to stay the election commission order. we are entertaining the SLP. We cannot stay the ECI order today," Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying.

The bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thackeray, and sought response of the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde.

The counsel for the Shinde faction told the bench that it will not issue any whip or initiate process to disqualify the lawmakers of the Thackeray faction in the meantime.

"All right, issue notice. The counter affidavit will be filed within two weeks," the bench said.

Last June, Shinde launched a rebellion against the party. Majority of MLAs sided with him, which led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) government led by Uddhav Thackeray. Later, Shinde was sworn in as the 20th chief minister of Maharashtra, while BJP stalwart Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the deputy CM.

While Shinde faction claims to have the backing of 40 MLAs, Thackeray camp has 15 MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Last Friday, the EC recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly bypolls in the state.

The Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order.