Were objections considered before renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad? Bombay High Court asks State

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government whether it had called for objections to changing the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad before sending its cabinet decision to the Central government for approval. [Mustaq Ahmed & Ors v. Union of India & Ors].A Bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne also asked the Central government if there is any procedure of seeking objections and suggestions that is required to be followed. It queried,"If the name is not officially changed, then how can it be done? Can there be a name change in official communications (by under secretary) without completion of the official process? Without objection and suggestion how can government resolution be implemented by the State?" The Court also asked the Centre for details on the status of the proposal to the change the names of the cities submitted by the State government..Appearing for one of the petitioners, Advocate Pradnya Talekar brought to the Court’s attention a communication dated January 16 addressed by the Under Secretary of the Maharashtra government to certain officials of Osmanabad. In that communication, the officials were referred to those of Dharashiv (the proposed changed name).Talekar contended that this change was without any official orders or notification from the State government. .The Court at this point asked the State government if the act of calling for suggestions and objections on the change of name had been carried out.Government pleader PP Kakade said that the State’s proposal was pending before the Central government, and sought time to get more information on the same..Senior Advocate Yusuf Muchhala, appearing for another petitioner, contended that the procedure which had been followed by the State was completely in violation of settled laws.The petitioner pleaded for a stay on the cabinet decision, which the Court refused to grant, since the approval from Central government was in any case pending. The Court posted the matter for further hearing on February 15, 2023..The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under Uddhav Thackeray had decided to rename both Aurangabad and Osmanabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively in June 2022.The new government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde passed a fresh proposal for the same, stating that the decision had been passed after the MVA had been reduced to a minority government and was not legally safe.Thereafter, petitions challenging the renaming of Aurangabad were filed by three individuals in August, and a petition challenging the renaming of Osmanabad was filed by seventeen residents of the city in July.The petitioners claimed that the decision was in complete disregard for the provisions of the Constitution.