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Synopsis

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed urgent mentioning of a plea filed Uddhav Thackeray faction against an order passed by The Election Commission of India allowing the Eknath Shinde-led faction to use the name 'Shiv Sena' and the symbol of 'bow and arrow'.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha has listed the matter for hearing on February 22 at 3:30 PM.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray faction submitted that Election Commission has passed its order and there is an urgency as they'll now take over bank accounts and everything, they have already taken over the office space, etc.

The plea has been filed against the order passed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel in a plea filed by Eknath Shinde. 

The order reads, 

"...the Commission in exercise of its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution read with Paras 15 and 18 of the Symbols Order, 1968, orders that:

I. The party name "Shiv Sena" and the party symbol "Bow and Arrow" will be retained by the Petitioner faction;

II. The name of "Balasahebanchi ShivSena" and symbol of "Two Swords and Shield", which was allotted to the petitioner by way of the interim order dated 11.10.22 of the Commission in this dispute case will henceforth be frozen with immediate effect and will not be used;

III. The Petitioner is directed to amend the 2018- Constitution of the Party in line with section 29 A of the RP Act, 1951 and extant guidelines issued by the Commission on registration of political parties inter-alia conforming to internal democracy;

IV. In view of the ongoing bye-elections for 205- Chinchwad, and 215- Kasba Peth of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the Respondent faction, which was allotted the name of "ShivSena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)" and symbol of "Flaming Torch" as per the interim order dated 10.10.22 of the Commission in this dispute case, is hereby allowed to retain the said name and the symbol till completion of the said bye-elections". 

The order of the Election Commission of India came after Eknath Shinde had approached the Election Commission with a plea to decide who the real Shiv Sena is. Earlier the Supreme Court had rejected the plea of Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena to seek a stay on the proceedings of the Election Commission.

Eknath Shinde, leader of the Shiv Sena had rebelled against the former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray with 40 other MLA's which led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Eknath Shinde, is currently the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.