SC on final hearing of Shiv Sena split case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday resumed final hearing on pleas challenging the Maharashtra Speaker’s refusal to disqualify MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, with the group defending the Election Commission’s decision to recognise it as the “real” Shiv Sena.A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana is also hearing the Uddhav Thackeray faction’s challenge to the EC’s February 17, 2023, order allotting the Shiv Sena name and ‘bow-and-arrow’ symbol to the Shinde camp.‘EC can examine party structure’Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for the Shinde faction, argued that the EC was empowered under Article 324 to examine a party’s constitution and organisational structure while deciding which faction represented the real party.“Your Lordships must see the entire record. The question is whether the constitution was with the Election Commission,” Kaul said.He said the constitution relied upon by the Thackeray faction was not registered with the EC, while the 1999 constitution was submitted after detailed correspondence with the poll panel.

Kaul said the EC was not deciding which amendments could be made to the constitution but whether the organisational structure reflected the will of the party cadre.‘It was a political party split’Rejecting the argument that the dispute was limited to a split in the legislative wing, Kaul said, “Our case has never been that there was merely a split in the legislative party. Our case is that there was a split in the political party.”He defended the EC’s organisational majority test, saying it could not conduct a referendum among every primary member of a political party.“The lifeblood of a political party is its cadre and grassroots workers who are directly connected to the electorate,” Kaul said.The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Wednesday.