Supreme Court Agrees Hear On March 24, The Plea Challenging Renaming Of Aurangabad To 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar'

A plea challenging the renaming of the city of Aurangabad to 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar' has been filed in the Supreme Court of India.

The plea was mentioned by Advocate Fuzail Ayyubi before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala.

The plea challenges the approval granted by the Union of India and the State of Maharashtra to the letter of the Divisional Commissioner, Aurangabad dated 4 March 2020 which proposed that the name of the city of Aurangabad be changed to 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar'.

The Supreme Court has agreed to list the said plea on 24 March 2023. 

As per the petitioner, he had challenged a similar attempt of renaming Aurangabad in 1996. The petition states that the said matter travelled up to the Supreme Court, leave was granted, and status quo was ordered by the court. However, the notification was later withdrawn by the state government and thus the matter became infructuous. The petition argues that the present attempt to rename the city was again challenged by him through a PIL which was pending in the High Court of Bombay. However, ignoring the pendency of the petition, the Union of India granted approval to the proposed change in the name of city. 

The petition adds–

"On the very same day, 24.02.2023, the State of Maharashtra also issued notifications officially changing the name of City Aurangabad, Taluka and District – Aurangabad, Maharashtra to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Taluka and District – Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Further, on the same day, the state government further issued a notification under Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, calling for objections to draft notification renaming the revenue divisions of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar."