Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said on Friday that tendering an apology to the Supreme Court — the body entrusted with upholding India's Constitution — would be entirely reasonable should the court determine that his remarks had been unbecoming of it. Speaking with members of the press, Raut conveyed that neither he nor his party held any intention of acting in contempt toward the apex court.

At a Thursday hearing on a petition related to the 12 October march to the Supreme Court — an event involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alongside a number of opposition figures — Chief Justice Surya Kant stated that the judiciary was not susceptible to intimidation, adding that the court did not operate in isolation from public realities. The bench declared that it possessed full awareness of the matter, and noted a gap between the positions put forward in court and the statements made publicly outside it.

When Raut was asked about assertions linking the top court's remarks to Rahul Gandhi, Sanjay Raut, or Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, he pointed out that no individual had been named in those observations. Raut indicated a willingness to offer an apology to the Supreme Court should the bench determine that his remarks as a petitioner were inappropriate, noting that the court — as the guardian of the Indian Constitution — warranted no less.

Addressing the opposition's petition concerning reported discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the conduct of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Raut told the gathering that while he had already tendered an apology, he was still seeking a fair resolution to the matter. Raut also called for justice to be delivered to the 130 million voters whose names had been removed from electoral rolls.

Raut pointed to comments he had previously made regarding delays in the ongoing proceedings over the name and party symbol of the original Shiv Sena — an organisation that fractured in 2022 when Eknath Shinde, who now holds the position of deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, broke away from then party president Uddhav Thackeray. The faction under Shinde's leadership was awarded the party's original name along with its bow-and-arrow electoral symbol.

A legal contest over the Shiv Sena name and its official symbol remains active in court, with approximately four and a half years having elapsed since the split. Over the course of the proceedings, four Chief Justices of India rotated through the bench, and a new administration took office during that span.

Raut went on to say that, should the position he had put forward to the Supreme Court turn out to be mistaken, he would offer his apologies.