Overview

• A Vacation Bench of Justices M M Sundresh and K Vinod Chandran deferred the UBT faction’s request for an urgent hearing and scheduled a full hearing on July 14.
• Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat urged the court to issue interim directions restraining Eknath Shinde’s group from using the Shiv Sena name, bow and arrow symbol and saffron flag to avoid misleading voters.
• The dispute dates back to the Election Commission’s February 2023 order recognizing Shinde’s faction as the legitimate Shiv Sena, a decision under challenge by Thackeray’s camp for two years.
• Maharashtra’s local body elections were ordered to be notified within four weeks after a May 6 Supreme Court directive, but the official poll schedule has yet to be announced.
• UBT is seeking relief modeled on the NCP symbol case, where a breakaway faction was required to publish a court-mandated disclaimer while the dispute was pending.