SC to hear Uddhav Thackeray camp's plea to stay EC proceedings on 'real' Shiv Sena on Aug 1

The Uddhav camp urged the top court to stay the proceedings till the final adjudication by the top court on disqualification of rebel MLAs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to examine on August 1 a plea filed by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for stay on proceedings initiated by Election Commission on a petition by Eknath Shinde and his supporters to recognise them as ‘real’ Shiv Sena.

Appearing for Thackeray's Sena, senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana for urgent hearing on the matter.

"Till the court decides (on the rebel's disqualification), they can't go to the Election Commission,” he contended.

Representing the Shinde and his supporters, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul said that the petitions before the top court are in connection with the disqualification proceedings initiated by the Speaker and the proceedings before the Election Commission are distinct.

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The court sought to know the stage of the proceedings before the Election Commission.

To this, Kaul said only notice has been issued for August 8.

After this, the court agreed to list the matter, along with other connected petitions arising out of Maharashtra political developments on August 1.

The plea filed by general secretary of Shiv Sena Subhash Desai submitted that Shinde and others have purportedly initiated proceedings under para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 (Symbols Order) seeking to be recognised as the “real Shiv Sena” by the ECI, and are claiming the right to use the election symbol of “bow and arrow” allotted to Shiv Sena.

Despite the matter being pending before the top court, in acts of desperation, and to somehow portray a majority, the respondents are trying to illegally cobble up numbers and fabricate an artificial majority in the organisation, it claimed.