The Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission’s notice issued to it on the plea of rival Eknath Shinde’s faction to recognise the latter, as the “real Shiv Sena,” and allot it the official party symbol “bow and arrow.”

The application filed on behalf of Subhash Desai, general secretary of the Shiv Sena, has assailed the Election Commission’s notice on the ground that it “amounts to interference with the judicial proceedings and thus, amounts to contempt of the court,” since the top court had earlier restrained the Speaker of the Assembly from deciding on the disqualification row on the basis of a undertaking given by the latter.

On July 11, the apex court had orally directed the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly not to proceed further on the disqualification petitions pending before him and to keep the same in abeyance, until it resolved the issue relating to a batch of petitions/ counter-petitions on the state’s political row.