On Wednesday, the plea filed by Mohammed Mustaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More was mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta. The petition is likely to be heard next Monday (August 1). (File Photo)Three residents from Aurangabad have recently approached the Bombay High Court challenging the renaming of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
The petition claimed that the cabinet led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray passed a decision in an unauthorised manner for political considerations last month and the same was reaffirmed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on July 16. It further mentioned that the state government had aborted its earlier attempt to change the name of the city in 2001.
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 was mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta. The petition is likely to be heard next Monday (August 1).
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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 Thackeray stepped down as the chief minister.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said that the MVA government took the decisions when it was in minority and so the decisions were 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.
“During 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 in order to polarise the society on religious and sectarian line… 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 the city has a history and a rich culture and political parties including Shiv Sena have been trying to change its name for political mileage.
The plea sought to declare the July 16 decision of the state government, recommendation of 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 to be set aside.
Pending hearing, the plea also sought direction to restrain respondent authorities from changing the name of Aurangabad.
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