Two separate public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the Maharashtra state government’s decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively, were dismissed by the Bombay high court.
The state government’s decision did not suffer from any illegality or other vice, and therefore did not warrant the court’s intervention, ruled by the division bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Arif Doctor on Wednesday. A PIL was submitted by some residents of Aurangabad who had approached the high court challenging the 16 July 2023 decision to rename the city.
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The petition stated that the city was named Aurangabad during the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and was widely accepted by its residents. The petitioners also claimed that the renaming was an attempt to create a rift among people by political parties and destroy the Muslim heritage and culture associated with the city.
Mohammed Mustaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare, and Rajesh More filed a PIL through Judicare Law Associates, stated that the petitioners had been opposing attempts to change the city’s name from Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar since 1995 when the state government first initiated the procedure to rename the city. Some Osmanabad residents too filed a PIL challenging the renaming of the city and revenue district to Dharashiv.
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