Supreme Court Posts Shiv Sena, NCP Symbol Disputes For Final Hearing On January 21, 2026

The Supreme Court today posted the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) symbol disputes to January 21, 2026, for final hearing.The petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) challenging the Election Commission's decision to recognize the Eknath Shinde group as the official Shiv Sena and grant them the 'bow and arrow' election symbol was listed before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi today.The bench also agreed to consider the petition filed by NCP (Sharad Pawar) against the ECI's decision to allot the official symbol to NCP (Ajit Pawar). Observing that the legal issues in these cases are similar and overlapping, the Court agreed to hear the matters together.The bench said that it will take up the matter on January 21 at 11.30 AM. Justice Kant instructed the Court master not to post any important matters on January 22 as well, so that the hearing can continue the next day if needed.Senior Advocates Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat appeared for Shiv Sena (UBT). Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and NK Kaul appeared for the other side. The UBT petition assails the Election Commission's February 2023 order, which awarded the party name and symbol to the faction led by Eknath Shinde, following the split in the Shiv Sena post the 2022 political crisis in the state.Thackeray's camp has contended that the ECI failed to consider the real test of party majority within the organisational structure and instead gave undue weight to the strength of the Shinde faction among elected MLAs.While issuing notice in the present matter, the Supreme Court permitted Uddhav group to retain the name "Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)" and the symbol "flaming torch" in terms of paragraph 133(IV) of the ECI order during the pendency of the matter.Likewise, the Sharad Pawar group has challenged the Election Commission's order passed in February 2024 allowing the Ajit Pawar group to use the official 'clock' symbol. Earlier, the Supreme Court had put in an interim arrangement allowing the Sharad Pawar group to use the "man with the turha (trumpet") symbol and asking Ajit Pawar group to publicise that their use of the clock symbol is a sub-judice issue.Case Title: UDDHAV THACKERAY Versus EKNATHRAO SAMBHAJI SHINDE AND ANR., SLP(C) No. 3997/2023Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Posts Shiv Sena, NCP Symbol Disputes For Final Hearing On January 21, 2026

Debby Jain

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