NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s appeal against the high court single-judge order dismissing his plea against Election Commission of India (ECI)’s decision to freeze Shiv Sena’s name and its ‘bow and arrow’ party symbol. Thackeray on December 13 had again approached the Delhi High Court following the dismissal of his plea.
After taking the lengthy submissions on the matter, the Bench presided over by Chief Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad kept the order reserved. “We will pass appropriate orders,” the court said.
During the course of the hearing, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appeared for Thackeray, submitting that the EC did not hear him while passing the freezing of symbol order which never happened in the history of the election watchdog.
On October 8, the EC directed both Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to restrain from using the same name or symbol till the official recognition is finally decided. They allowed different symbols for the recent Andheri East bypoll.
Justice Narula, in his order, said, “There is a split between members of the ‘Shiv Sena’. One group or faction is led by Eknathrao 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.