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 are of the opinion that issue of alteration of name of a revenue area or even of a city or a town is not justiciable for the reason that the courts lack the requisite tool to adjudicate such an issue in absence of any judicially manageable or discoverable standard. As to by what name a particular object is to be known cannot be judicially reviewed unless the name so proposed is atrocious," the Court held. .The court concluded that the notification has been passed following statutory provisions have been followed."We have no hesitation to conclude that so far as the challenge made to rename the revenue areas of Aurangabad and Osmanabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv, respectively, is concerned, the statutory provisions of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (MLRC) have been followed and in absence of any procedural flaw, we are unable to subscribe to the submissions made by the Petitioners," the Court held. .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 unauthorised 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 of 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 alter 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.The government specifically denied allegations that the change of name was a politically motivated move for the purpose of hate mongering towards a community.It stated that the objections and suggestions to the draft notification of the proposed alterations in the names had been duly considered by the government. .The court opined that reasons for accepting or rejecting the objections or suggestions lay within the administrative realm of the state government. "Once consideration has been made after issuance of the draft notification, we do not have any reason to disbelieve that due consideration to such objections or suggestions were not given by the State Government before issuing the final notifications", the court observed. .Senior advocates Yusuf Muchhala and Anil Anturkar with advocates Satish B Talekar, Madhavi Ayyapan, Sangheer Khan, Rashda Ainapore, Amaan Khan, AH Ansari, SS Kazi, MN Shaikh, Kalyani Mangave with Judicare Law Associates and Talekar and Associates appeared for petitioners. Advocate general for Maharashtra Dr Birendra Saraf, with government pleaders PP Kakade, RA Salunkhe and Nisha M Mehra appeared for State.Additional solicitor general Devang Vyas with advocates Advait M Sethna, DP Singh, Niyanta Trivedi, Amit Munde appeared for the Union of India. [Read order]