The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday asked the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government to file counter affidavits within a week on a petition challenging the decision to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan passed the order on a PIL moved by H S Pandey.

The petitioner argued that it was necessary to invite objections from the public under Section 6 (2) of the Revenue Manual before changing the name of a district, but the said provision was not followed in the present case.

The state counsel opposed the plea by submitting that the provision was applicable in case the revenue area had to be changed. But, he added, only the name was changed in the present case and, therefore, the petition was not maintainable.

After hearing both sides, the court asked the state and the central government counsel to place their arguments on record by filing counter affidavits.

The next hearing of the matter is on Monday.

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