Petitions against renaming Aurangabad, Osmanabad can wait: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Monday declined to grant urgent hearing to two petitions against the Maharashtra government's decision to rename the cities of Aurangabad and Osmanabad..When advocate SB Talekar urged the Court to list the matter on priority, a division bench of Justices PB Varale and KC Sant said there is no urgency in the matter and declined the request.."Mr Talekar, have you seen the list of holidays this month. The government doesn't work much even during working days, what are you expecting? Nothing is going to happen in an electrifying speed. These petitions can wait," the bench said.It then listed the petitions for hearing on August 23.The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under Uddhav Thackeray had decided to rename both Aurangabad and Osmanabad in its last cabinet meeting on June 29 this year.Aurangabad is slated to be named Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar while Osmanabad is proposed to be named Dharashiv.The new government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had on July 16 passed a fresh proposal for the same, stating that the MVA decision was not legally safe as it was passed after the MVA had been reduced to a minority government.The petition challenging the renaming of Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was filed last week by three individuals, Mohammed Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More. They 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 was filed on July 30 by 17 residents of the city.It was 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 even mentioned that in 1998, the Maharashtra government had attempted to alter the name to Dharashiv but it failed.