Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred the case relating to the claim over Shiv Sena to a constitution bench.
Eight questions were put out for the larger bench to consider in the dispute over control of the party between Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, and Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena.
The Supreme Court also ordered the Election Commission to hold off on taking any further action until Thursday in the party symbol issue between Thackeray’s and Shinde’s camps.
The appeal will be heard by a five-member constitution bench on Thursday.
“List the matter before the constitution bench the day after tomorrow and the bench will decide about the symbol related to the Election Commission proceeding at the beginning,” said the bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli.
The Shiv Sena factions led by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray filed petitions in court over the disqualification of MLAs as well as other technical matters.
Late last month, Shinde urged the Supreme Court to reject all of Uddhav Thackeray’s arguments and let the Election Commission to determine which section of the Shiv Sena is the actual one. Shinde also argued that judges shouldn’t intervene with internal party decisions “made democratically by the majority” because he claimed to control the numbers and, therefore, the Sena.
