Bombay High Court dismisses petitions against renaming Aurangabad, Osmanabad

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed petitions challenging the decision of the State authorities to rename city and revenue divisions of Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor ruled that the notification renaming the cities were not illegal.

“We have no hesitation to hold that the notifications renaming cities and revenue divisions does not suffer from any vice,” the Court hero.

The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under Uddhav Thackeray had decided to rename both Aurangabad and Osmanabad in its cabinet meeting of June 29, 2021.

Aurangabad city and revenue division were renamed as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ while Osmanabad was renamed as ‘Dharashiv’.

The new government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on July 16, 2022 re-affirmed the decision of the MVA government.

Post this, a clutch of petitions came to be filed before the High Court by individuals including the residents of the respective districts.

The petitions stated that the State government had aborted its attempt to change the name of Aurangabad in the year 2001.

However, the government led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray raised the issue in his last cabinet, allegedly in an unauthorized manner for political benefits.

The petitioners claimed that the decision was in complete disregard to the provisions of the Constitution.

The plea against renaming Osmanabad submitted that the name change from Osmanabad to Dharashiv could incite religious and communal hatred, causing rifts between religious groups, and was thus contrary to India’s secular fabric.

It also pointed out that in 1998, the Maharashtra government had attempted to change the name of Osamnabad to Dharashiv but failed.

In response to this, the Maharashtra government claimed that the change in the name of ‘Osmanabad’ to ‘Dharashiv’ neither led to any religious or communal hatred nor did it cause any rift between religious groups.

They stated that to the contrary, majority of the people celebrated after change of name from Osmanabad to Dharashiv.

The government specifically denied allegations that the change of name was a politically motivated move for the purpose of hatred mongering towards a community.