Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 4: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India not to decide on the application filed by the Eknath Shinde camp for recognition as the ‘real Shiv Sena’ party and allotment of the Bow and Arrow symbol to it.
A three-judge bench said to ECI that if the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp seeks time to file a response to its notices on the Shinde camp’s petition, it should consider their request to adjourn the case.
The next hearing in the matter will be on August 8 to decide whether to refer some issues involved in the Maharashtra political crisis to a five-judge Constitutional bench.
Chief Justice NV Ramana asked Team Shinde, wanting to know if “If you are completely ignoring political parties after being elected then is it not a danger to democracy”.
Team Thackeray wants the Election Commission to wait before making a decision. Before the court decided on the petitions seeking the disqualification of “rebel” MLAs led by Shinde, it sought the court to prevent the poll panel from making any decisions. By August 8, the Election Commission had requested testimony from each side before hearing the case.
The case was initially sparked by Team Thackeray’s objection to the Governor’s requests for a trust vote. The BJP, the single-largest party in the Vidhan Sabha, supported Shinde’s side, helping him to win the vote.
