Breaking | Bombay High Court Upholds Renaming Of Aurangabad And Osmanabad To Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar And Dharashiv

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday upheld the Maharashtra government's notifications officially renaming Aurangabad city and revenue areas to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad city and revenue areas to Dharashiv respectively.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor while pronouncing the judgment dismissing a batch of pleas challenging the state government's notifications of the changed names stated -

"In view of the discussion made and reasons given, we have no hesitation to conclude that the impugned notifications issued by the state government renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv cities and the revenue areas of Aurangabad and Osmanabad as revenue areas of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv do not suffer from any illegality or any other legal vice and thus no interference in the impugned notifications is warranted. The petitions being bereft of any merit are hereby dismissed. No costs."

The pleas, including PILs and various writ petitions, challenged the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as well as revenue areas (District, Sub-Division, Taluka, Villages).

Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government during its last cabinet meeting in June, 2022 greenlit the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad city as Dharashiv. However, the subsequent Shinde-Fadnavis government made a fresh decision on renaming and expanded the renaming of Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar by adding the prefix "Chhatrapati."

The renaming of the revenue areas is governed by section 4 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, which permits the State Government to alter the limits of any revenue area or abolish any such revenue area and also to name it.

On February 24, 2023, the Union ministry of home affairs approved the renaming of Aurangabad city, while it had aproved the renaming of Osmanabad city on February 7, 2023. The state government through two notifications on February 24, 2023 formally notified the changed names of the cities, but the process of changing the names of the district and revenue authorities was not complete by then. The state government published a draft notification on the same day inviting objections from general public to re-naming the revenue areas of Aurangabad and Osmanabad.

The High Court on August 30, 2023 disposed of a batch of petitions contesting the proposed renaming of the revenue areas, as the new names hadn't been formally notified. The challenge to the news names of the cities survived.

The renaming of the Aurangabad and Osmanabad revenue areas was formally notified just over two weeks later on September 15, 2023. Thereafter, new pleas were filed challenging the new names of the revenue areas.

The pleas against renaming were filed on the ground that public sentiments were not considered while taking this decision and the state violated provisions of the Constitution. It was further alleged that the name is being changed to spread hatred towards Muslims and gain political advantage.

The PILs contended that the renaming is driven by political motives and fosters religious discord. The petitioner in the PIL challenging Aurangabad renaming alleged that a campaign is going on in Maharashtra to change names of all cities which have a Muslim name.

The Maharashtra government, however, denied this contention and submitted that naming of a city on a personality held in high esteem (in case of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) by the entire State does not have a religious colour.

In its affidavit opposing to the PIL challenging the renaming of Osmanabad, the state government told the court that the renaming of Osmanabad city as Dharashiv was met with celebration by the majority of the city's residents. It further claimed that this renaming neither undermined the spirit of secularism nor resulted in any communal discord.

Case no. – Public Interest Litigation Nos. 93 and 173 of 2022 with connected matters

Case Title – Mohammed Mushtaq Ahmed v. Union of India and Ors. with Shaikh Masud Ismail Shaikh and Ors v. Union of India and Ors. with connected matters