Maharashtra: Plea moved in HC challenges renaming of Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The petition claimed that the state government had aborted its attempt to change the name of the city in 2001, however, the former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led cabinet passed a decision cabinet in an unauthorised manner for political considerations last month and the same was reaffirmed by the CM Eknath Shinde on July 16.

While the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by former CM Thackeray had changed the name of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar, the Shinde government added ‘Chhatrapati’ as a prefix to the name. The plea said that the decision was in complete disregard to the Constitution and urged the same to be declared null and void.

On Wednesday, the plea filed by Mohammed Mustaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More — residents of Aurangabad who are social activists and educationists — was mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta on Wednesday, which is likely to be heard on August 1.

The decision to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv was taken during the last Cabinet meeting of the then MVA government on June 29, hours before Uddhav Thackeray stepped down as the CM. CM Eknath Shinde had said that the MVA government had taken the decisions when the government was in minority and are thus illegal.

The PIL filed through Judicare Law Associates pointed out that through press reports, during the last week of June, they came to know about the government’s decision to change the name of the city. The petitioners sought copies of the documents about the decision, however, they did not avail of any response.

During the Maratha rule and/or British rule, nobody demanded to change the name of Aurangabad. However, after the formation of Shiv Sena and other political parties to polarise the society on religious and sectarian lines for their political gain started picking up the issue of changing the name of Aurangabad from the year 1988. …The present government without there being any reason is obliquely trying to change the name of Aurangabad” the plea claimed.

The petitioner said that city has a history and rich culture and political parties including Shiv Sena have been trying to change the name for political mileage.

The plea sought to declare the July 16 decision of the state government and, the recommendation of the Divisional Commissioner, Aurangabad and the 2020 resolution of the municipal corporation towards changing the name of the city to be declared null and void and be set aside.  Pending the hearing, the plea also sought direction to restrain respondent authorities from changing the name of Aurangabad.