Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With Renaming Of Aurangabad & Osmanabad As Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar & Dharashiv

The Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S.V.N Bhatti refused to interfere with the impugned order.  

Several petitions were filed before the High Court challenging the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as well as revenue areas (District, Sub-Division, Taluka, Villages). The Union Ministry of Home Affairs approved the renaming of Aurangabad on February 24, 2023, while it had already approved for Osmanabad on February 7, 2023.

The state government through two notifications on February 24, 2023, formally notified the changed names of the cities, although the process for renaming the associated revenue areas was not completed at that time. The state government also published a draft notification on the same day inviting objections from the general public to renaming 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. At the same time, the challenge to the new 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 PILs contended that the renaming is driven by political motives and fosters religious discord. The petitioner in the PIL challenging Aurangabad's renaming alleged that a campaign is going on in Maharashtra to change the names of all cities which have a Muslim name.

The Maharashtra government, however, denied this contention and submitted that the 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.

However, the High Court refused to interfere with the challenged notification saying that it did not suffer from any illegality or any other legal vice.

“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.”

Against this order, the petitioners approached the Top Court seeking to set aside the impugned order. They had also prayed for putting a stay on the impugned order.

The present petition was filed through Advocate on Record Pulkit Agarwal.

Case Details: SHAIKH MASUD ISMAIL SHAIKH AND ORS. v. UOI, SLP(C) No. 15453/2024