The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition challenging the Maharashtra government’s decision to rename Aurangabad city as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ as a similar matter was pending before the Bombay High Court.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala refused to entertain the special leave petition on the grounds that the Bombay High Court was currently seized of the proceedings, which were listed for hearing on April 24.
Two weeks ago, another petition seeking intervention in the Maharashtra government’s decision was turned back by the top court since the Bombay High Court had already taken cognisance of it. Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde informed the bench today that the matter was adjourned to the last week of April by the High Court.
After receiving the Centre’s imprimatur, the state government, in February, had issued notifications officially changing the name of Aurangabad – city, taluka, and district – to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena government has also issued a notification under Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, calling for objections to a draft notification renaming the revenue divisions of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar. These notifications, Hegde told the bench, were already in the process of being implemented. “Not only the name of the city, but also that of the district, taluka, division, and sub-division, are being changed,” the senior counsel submitted.
The senior counsel recalled an exchange between Frank Anthony, a leading Anglo-Indian lawyer and member of the Constituent Assembly, and former Supreme Court judge Pingle Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“On a lighter note, once, Mr Frank Anthony kept addressing Justice Jagan Mohan Reddy as Justice Jagmohan Reddy. Twice or thrice, Justice Reddy corrected him. But, Mr Antony asked him, what’s in a name? To this, Justice Reddy quipped, pray proceed, Mr Mark Anthony.”
“So, Your Lordship, there is something in a name,” Hegde asserted.
“Whether we like it or not, this lies in the democratic arms of the government,” replied Justice Chandrachud. “Who are we to change the name of a road or a place? It is for the elected executive to decide,” the chief justice remarked. The senior counsel promptly replied, “The high court is still the Bombay High Court.”
Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city and Osmanabad are proposed to be renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharasiv respectively. Aurangabad derives its name from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, while Osmanabad was named after a twentieth-century ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad.