Delhi HC reserves order on Uddhav Thackeray's appeal against decision freezing party name, symbol

The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its order on an appeal by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray challenging a single judge's decision dismissing his plea against an Election Commission interim order freezing the Shiv Sena name and election symbol.

Thackeray claimed that the single judge's November 15 order, by which it had also directed the EC to expedite the proceedings, is “erroneous” and liable to be set aside.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, after hearing arguments of counsels for both the parties, said, "We will pass appropriate orders." Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thackeray, submitted that the EC did not hear him while passing the freezing of symbol order.

"Never in the history of the commission, freezing order has been passed without hearing the party," he argued.

The single judge bench, in its order, had said that there was "no procedural infraction" in the EC's order freezing the Shiv Sena's name and election symbol following a "split" in the party.

It had said the commission passed the freezing order in view of urgency in respect of allotment of symbol on account of announcement of bypolls and the petitioner, who repeatedly took time to furnish necessary documents, now cannot allege violation of principles of natural justice and criticise the poll panel.

"There is a split between members of the 'Shiv Sena', a recognised political party in the state of Maharashtra. One group or faction is led by Eknathrao Sambhaji Shinde and the other by Uddhav Thackeray. Both claim to be the president of the original Shiv Sena party, and stake claim to its poll symbol of 'bow and arrow'," the single judge had noted in its order.

Thackeray, in his appeal, claimed that there was no dispute on the leadership of the party and that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknathrao Sambhaji Shinde himself admitted that Thackeray is and continues to be the rightfully elected president of the Shiv Sena political party.

Therefore, it cannot be said that there are two rival factions of the Shiv Sena political party, he said.

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On October 8, the EC had passed an interim order barring the two Shiv Sena factions from using the party's name and its election symbol in the Andheri East assembly bypoll.