The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would begin final hearing on January 21, 2026 on the dispute between Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde group of Shiv Sena in respect of the allotment of ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol and the dismissal of the plea for the disqualification of MLAs Eknath Shinde faction by the then.
Posting the matter for final hearing on Janus wary 21, a bench of Chief Justice designate, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said first it will first hear the case relating to dispute between Shiv Sena factions, followed by a hearing on the dispute between the Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar factions over their claim to represent the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) dispute.
The Thackeray faction petition has assailed the Election Commission’s February 2023 order, which awarded the party name and symbol to the faction led by Eknath Shinde, following the split in the Shiv Sena post the 2022 political crisis. Thackeray’s camp has contested the dismissal of a plea for the disqualification of MLAs belonging to Shinde, his faction’ MLAs, by the Maharashtra Speaker.
The court has also agreed to consider the NCP (Sharad Pawar) petitions against the ECI’s decision to allot ‘Clock’ – the official symbol to NCP (Ajit Pawar). Sharad Pawar group has challenged the Election Commission’s order passed in February 2024 allowing the Ajit Pawar group to use the official ‘clock’ symbol.
Following a rift between the Sharad Pawar and the Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP, the Election Commission of India recognised the Ajit Pawar’s faction as a real NCP based on its legislative majority and allotted it the ‘clock’ symbol to it.
In the meanwhile, by its February 2024, order, the top court had permitted the Sharad Pawar faction to use the name ‘Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) for the elections with “man blowing turha” symbol.
