Supreme Court Schedules Hearing on Shiv Sena Symbol Dispute for January 21

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Shinde faction secured seven seats.

The Supreme Court has scheduled January 21 for hearing petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction challenging the Election Commission's decision to allocate the 'bow and arrow' symbol to the faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi announced that arguments regarding the Shiv Sena symbol dispute will commence on January 21. The bench will subsequently hear arguments on a similar dispute involving the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on January 22, noting that both matters share several overlapping issues.

The court has allocated three hours for arguments from each faction of the political parties involved.

Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, representing the Thackeray faction, emphasized the urgency of the hearing due to upcoming local body polls in Maharashtra. Justice Kant remarked that political parties in India are perpetually in election mode, contesting national elections, state polls, or local body elections.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for the Shinde faction.

On July 14, the Supreme Court had scheduled the matter for final hearing, stating that the issue had been pending for an extended period and the uncertainty could not continue indefinitely. The Uddhav faction has contested the Election Commission's February 17 order that granted the name 'Shiv Sena' and its electoral symbol 'bow and arrow' to the group led by Shinde.

The Thackeray faction has also challenged the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker's decision to award the party's name and symbol to the opposing faction based on legislative majority, arguing that this contradicted a Constitution bench verdict of the Supreme Court.

On May 7, the top court advised the Thackeray-led faction to focus on the local body polls after the party requested an urgent hearing regarding its petition against the Speaker's decision.

In January 2024, Speaker Rahul Narwekar dismissed Shiv Sena-UBT's petition to disqualify 16 MLAs, including Shinde, from the ruling camp.

Contesting the Speaker's orders in the Supreme Court, the Thackeray faction claimed they were "patently unlawful and perverse" and instead of penalizing defection, they rewarded the defectors by determining that they constituted the legitimate political party.

The petition argued that the Speaker erroneously concluded that the majority of Shiv Sena legislators represented the will of the Shiv Sena party.

In his ruling on the disqualification petitions, the Speaker did not disqualify any MLA from either faction.

The Speaker's decision further solidified Shinde's position as the then chief minister, 18 months after he led a rebellion against Thackeray, and enhanced his political leverage in the ruling coalition, which also included the BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar group) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and Maharashtra Assembly elections.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Shinde faction won seven seats. In the Maharashtra polls, the party secured 57 seats, while the BJP won 132 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP obtained 41 seats.

In December 2024, Devendra Fadnavis returned as Maharashtra Chief Minister with Shinde and Pawar serving as deputy chief ministers.