TSIT ■ Mumbai
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea of Shiv Sena-UBT leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to stay the Election Commission’s order freezing the party’s bow and arrow symbol.
After hearing the submissions of the parties, Justice Sanjeev Narula also directed the poll panel to adjudicate the pending dispute as expeditiously as possible and dismissed the plea. A detailed order along with reasons for dismissing the plea will be made available later, the court said. The Election Commission froze the party’s bow and arrow symbol on October 8 amid the tussle between the two factions of Shiv Sena led by Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. In an interim order on October 8, the poll panel said: “The Commission hereby makes the following Interim Order, to cover the purpose of the current by-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute into the matter.”It said that neither of the two groups led by Shinde and other led by Thackeray be permitted to use the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and neither of the two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol, reserved for the party.
“Both the groups shall be known by such names as they may choose for their respective groups, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party ‘Shiv Sena’; and both the groups shall also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission for the purpose of the current by-elections,” the poll panel said. Thackeray then approached the high court seeking to allot his candidates the symbol chosen by them for the upcoming bypolls rather than restricting it to three choices that the EC had given.
