On Tuesday, July 26, the Supreme Court agreed to hear on August 1 a fresh plea by Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction against the Election Commission's (EC) proceedings on a petition by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction for recognition as the real Shiv Sena, reports stated.
Based on accounts the bench was urged by the Thackeray faction's advocate that the ongoing proceedings before the poll panel, be stayed because it would impact the hearing there in that case. The advocate added that the matter pending before the SC should not be rendered infructuous.
On the other hand, the advocate appearing for the Shinde faction told the bench that the issues are different. While one concerns the speaker with the judiciary dealing with issues of disqualification, and floor test, amongst others, the EC is dealing with intra-party matters. This he said concerned who represented the party, and its symbol and thus had nothing to do with the disqualification.
The SC responded that it would tag the fresh plea with those pending and hear it together on August 1.
Recently, the EC had asked both factions to submit documents by August 8 in support of their claims of the election symbol of the party. In the aftermath of the EC notice, a fresh plea was filed by the Thackeray faction seeking the SC's approval to stay the proceedings concerning the party and the symbol. They termed their rival faction's move as an act of "desperation".
Last week, the Thackeray group filed a representation before the poll panel after the Shinde group wrote to the SC seeking Shiv Sena's election symbol, mentioning the recognition it garnered in the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly.
Previously the SC had said that the petitions filed by both the factions in the Maharashtra political crisis which raised constitutional issues needed a larger bench. The bench had extended the operation of its order wherein it told the Assembly Speaker to not proceed with a plea seeking disqualification of the MLAs.
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