The Supreme Court has listed a petition challenging the renaming of the city of Aurangabad to ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ for hearing on March 24.
The matter was mentioned before the Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice J.B. Pardiwala by Advocate Fuzail Ayyubi.
The petition challenged the approval granted by the Union of India and the State of Maharashtra to a letter of the Divisional Commissioner, Aurangabad dated March 4, 2020, which proposed changing the name of Aurangabad city to ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’.
Advocate Ayyubi contended that the petitioner had challenged a similar attempt of renaming Aurangabad in 1996. The matter had then also reached the Supreme Court, which had ordered status quo.
However, the notification was later withdrawn by the state government and thus, the matter became infructuous.
The plea contended that the present attempt to rename the city was again challenged 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 on February 24 this year.
Advocate Ayyub said that the State of Maharashtra also issued notification on the same day, officially changing the name of City Aurangabad, Taluka and District – Aurangabad, Maharashtra to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Taluka and District – Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
The state government further issued a notification on February 24 under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, calling for objections to draft notification renaming the revenue divisions of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar, it added.