Pending For 2 Years, SC To Begin Focused Hearing Of Sena,NCP Disputes From Jan 21; Timeline Fixed

Which faction is the real Shiv Sena..Uddhav Thackarey’s or Eknath Shindey’s? Who should get party’s original ‘bow and arrow’ symbol ? Which is the real NCP Sharad Pawar’s or Ajit Pawar’s? Who deserves

the ‘Clock’ symbol? Should the rebel Sena, NCP MLAs have been disqualified? Focussed hearing on these contentious issues languishing since almost two years in Supreme Court will commence on January 21, 2026, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi has assured.Series of orders by Election Commission of India have been challenged by Uddhav faction of Sena and Sharad Pawar faction of NCP before the Supreme Court.The intention of the SC bench to commence serious hearing for adjudication of the vexed issues is clear from the fact that the court has fixed timelines.DURATION FIXEDSC Bench said in its order: “The petitioner(s) side is allocated 3 hours’ time, which may be adjusted amongst the arguing counsel. Similarly, the respondent(s) shall be given 2 hours’ time, which may also be adjusted amongst the arguing counsel. The Nodal counsel from both sides (Rohit Sharma, Chirag Shah, Pranjal Agarwal, Abhikalp Pratap Singh) will ensure that convenience compilations are prepared, complete and placed on record a week before the commencement of hearing”. Nodal counsels named in SC order: Advocate Rohit Sharma for Uddhav Group, Advocate Chirag Shah for Shinde group . For Sharad Pawar Group- Advocate Pranjal Agarwal. For Ajit Pawar Group its Advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh.The Registry is directed to list the Shiv Sena matters followed by NCP matters in the cause list, the order saidWhen Senior Adv Devdatt Kamat for UBT Sena said there was some urgency due to ensuing Local Body polls which SC itself said should be completed by Jan 31, 2026, Snr Adv Mukul Rohatgi for Shinde Sena responded: “So many elections have happened without the old symbol (bow & arrow) and with the temporary symbol..assembly polls, Lok Sabha election..what is the hurry in hearing merely citing local body polls that too shall pass”.Justice Surya Kant chipped in to say : "beauty of political parties in this country is that they are always in election mode".While Kamat and Senior Adv Abhishek Singhvi will appear for Uddhav faction, Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for the Shinde faction.Uddhav faction has challenged the February 17 order of the Election Commission which has allotted the name 'Shiv Sena' and its poll symbol 'bow and arrow' to the group led by Shinde.The Thackeray faction has also questioned the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker's decision to hand over the party's name and symbol to the opposite faction based on the legislative majority saying it was contrary to a Constitution bench verdict of the top court.In January 2024, Speaker Rahul Narwekar rejected Shiv Sena-UBT's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs including Shinde of the ruling camp.Challenging the orders passed by the Speaker in the apex court, the Thackeray faction claimed they were "patently unlawful and perverse" and instead of punishing the act of defection, they rewarded the defectors by holding that they comprised the real political party.The Speaker, the plea claimed, erred in holding that the majority of the Shiv Sena legislators represented the will of the Shiv Sena party.In his ruling on the disqualification petitions, the Speaker did not disqualify any MLA belonging to the rival camps.Primary argument of Uddhav faction is that in SC’s May 2023 judgment SC had said not legislative majority, what is to be considered is evaluation of the majority in the organisational wings of the political party, an analysis of provisions of the party constitution, or any other appropriate test