MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the Shiv Sena party name and its bow-and-arrow symbol belong to Uddhav Thackeray and argued that if the court does not allot them to his faction, both should be frozen.
The hearing in the long-running dispute over the party's name and election symbol is in its final stage, with the Supreme Court expected to pronounce its judgment soon.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Shiv Sena (UBT), argued that the Election Commission's decision to allot the Shiv Sena name and bow-and-arrow symbol to the faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was legally unsustainable.
The Election Commission had recognised the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena based on the majority support it claimed from the party's MLAs and MPs following the 2022 split.
Sibal argued that elected representatives cannot be equated with the political party itself and that the support of MLAs and MPs should not determine ownership of a party's identity.
He urged the court to either recognise Thackeray's claim over the party name and symbol or, if it declined to do so, prevent both factions from using them.
“If they cannot get that symbol and I cannot get it either, then that symbol should be frozen,” Sibal submitted.
Sibal also argued that the Election Commission's decision was contrary to the anti-defection provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
He contended that recognising a faction based on the subsequent support of MLAs and MPs could incentivise defections and undermine the constitutional framework intended to prevent elected representatives from switching political loyalties.
“When a person is in power, it is natural that this will happen. But the prior situations must be considered. Nothing that happened after that can be used in a way that will encourage defection,” Sibal argued.
The dispute stems from the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, when Shinde and a majority of the party's MLAs rebelled against Thackeray, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra.
The Election Commission subsequently allotted the Shiv Sena name and bow-and-arrow symbol to the Shinde faction, while the Thackeray-led faction was assigned the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the flaming torch symbol.