Uddhav Thackeray
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to conduct the final hearing on January 21, 2026 the appeal filed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena against the Election Commission 's decision to allot the 'bow and arrow' party symbol to the Eknath Shinde-led faction.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that the court will start hearing the arguments from January 21 on the Shiv Sena symbol dispute.
The bench also clarified that it will hear the arguments on a similar dispute concerning the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on January 22, as there are several overlapping issues involved in it.
The court fixed three hours for hearing arguments from each faction of the political parties, while clarifying that, if need be, dates can also be extended further to conduct the hearings.
The Election Commission on February 17, 2023, had decided that Maharashtra's former Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde's faction is the real Shiv Sena, and thereby it gave the original name and allotted it the 'bow and arrow' symbol, in terms of Symbols Order formulated by the poll panel, in exercise of its power under Article 324 of the Constitution read with Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Uddhav Thackeray-led group had moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing the EC's order.