New Delhi: In a breather to the Uddhav Thackeray faction, the Supreme Court on Thursday, August 4, instructed the Election Commission not to decide on the Eknath Shinde camp’s plea that it be recognised as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and be granted the party symbol of bow and arrow.
The three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, instead said that it will take a call on the matter by Monday, August 8, whether or not to refer the issue to a larger constitutional bench of five judges.
The court had also earlier noted that Maharashtra’s political crisis threw up several constitutional questions pertaining to anti-defection law, the election of Assembly Speaker, disqualification of legislators, floor test, among others.
“We will decide whether to refer the matter to the five-judges constitution bench,” the bench, also comprising justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, said.
According to Livelaw.in, the bench instructed EC to grant time to the Thackeray faction to file its response to the Shinde camp’s contentions, and no decision yet be taken given that the matter was still pending with the top court.
The faction led by Shinde, in its petition, argued that since it “commands numbers” the courts should not interfere in the internal party decisions “taken democratically by a majority”, according to NDTV.
However, the Thackery camp urged the court to stop the EC from deciding on the rival camp’s pleas until its own petition seeking disqualification of “rebel” MLAs was heard.
The political turmoil in Maharashtra began with a rebellion in the Shiv Sena following which Thackeray resigned as chief minister on June 29. A day later, rebel Sena leader Shinde took the oath of office as chief minister with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as his partner.
(With PTI inputs)
