Supreme Court allows EC to decide on ‘real Shiv Sena’
The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to stop the Election Commission (EC) from deciding on an application by Eknath Shinde-led group to be recognised as the real Shiv Sena and be allowed to use the party symbol.
In a setback for Uddhav Thackeray, a five-judge Bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, M R Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P S Narasimha has allowed the EC to proceed with the Shinde group’s plea.
“We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission of India. Accordingly, the Interlocutory Application is dismissed,” the court said.
Earlier, the Uddhav faction had argued before the court that Shinde cannot approach the EC as he has ‘incurred disqualification.’
Kapil Sibal said that Shinde’s actions amounted to ‘voluntary giving up of the party membership under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule; also he has violated the party whip,’ as per the same Schedule.
Welcoming the Constitutional Bench’s decision, Maharashtra CM Shinde said, “In a democracy the majority is important and we have the majority in State Assembly as well as in the Lok Sabha. Whatever decisions that take place in this country are based on the Constitution; this decision is also based on that. The EC is an independent body… The court decides on different matters and EC decides on different matters…”
