Shiv Sena Symbol case: Election Commission tells Supreme Court it cannot be made party to case since order was passed in judicial capacity

The Election Commission of India (ECI) told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the poll body cannot be made a party to the appeal filed Uddhav Thackeray faction against allotment of bow and arrow symbol of Shiv Sena to the Eknath Shinde led faction [Uddhav Thackeray vs Eknathrao Sambhaji Shinde and anr]..The ECI said the order passed by it, which is under challenge before the top court, was passed by the poll body in its capacity as a quasi-judicial body and was not an administrative decision. Hence, it cannot be made a party to the proceedings, it was submitted."The order of the Election Commission was passed not in an administrative capacity of the Commission but in a quasi-judicial capacity under Para 15 of the Symbols order and thus it has no contentions to make on merits of the case as the order is a well reasoned order and covers all the issues raised by the Petitioner," the affidavit filed by the ECI before the Supreme Court said.The reply of the poll body came on a plea by the Uddhav Thackeray faction against a February 17 ECI order recognising the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the split party as the real Shiv Sena and granting them rights to use the party's bow and arrow symbol.The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, had earlier refused to stay the ECI order. .The Election Commission its affidavit contended that it became a "functus officio" for the present case since it has already discharged its duty to adjudicate the petition filed under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order after passing of the order..The poll body further stated that Supreme Court in a number of cases have held that where an order passed by a quasi-judicial body is under challenge before an appellate court, "such a body need not be arrayed as a party to the appeal.""Thus ECI has no submission to make on merits of the case," the affidavit said..The Shiv Sena political party had split into two factions last year, one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde, who went on to replace Thackeray as Maharashtra's Chief Minister in June 2022.Shinde had then petitioned the ECI staking a claim to the 'Shiv Sena' name and the bow and arrow symbol.The ECI then relied on the strength of the legislative wing of the party to arrive at its decision rather than on the test of its organisational wing.The ECI explained that although it had attempted to apply the test of the organisational wing, it could not come to any satisfactory conclusion because the latest Constitution of the party was not on record.The claims of numerical majority in the organisational wing of the party by both factions were not satisfactory, the ECI opined.Hence, it proceeded to rely on the test of who had the majority in the legislative wing.The Shinde faction was noted to have 40 MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly as against the Thackeray faction's 15 MLAs.Likewise, in the Lok Sabha as well, out of 18 Members of Parliament (MPs), 13 MPs supported the Shinde faction, while only 5 supported the Thackeray faction.Hence, the ECI ruled in favour of the Shinde faction and allowed it to retain Shiv Sena name and the bow and arrow symbol.The Uddhav faction then moved the top court against the same.