Three Aurangabad residents have approached the Bombay High Court challenging the Maharashtra government’s decision to rename their city to Sambhajinagar stating that same has been done to gain political advantage.
Mohammed Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More have filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the HC challenging the move stating that a similar attempt in the year 2001 was aborted.
On June 29, the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had decided to rename the city as Sambhajinagar in its last cabinet meeting.
A fresh proposal was passed early this year by the new government led by Eknath Shinde faction that will rename the Marathwada’s biggest city as “Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar”.
Stating that the decision to rename Aurangabad was taken was in complete disregard to the provisions of the Constitution, it alleged that the decision was taken by the MVA government in its last cabinet meeting for “political considerations”.
The city of Aurangabad is part of history and has a rich culture, and political parties like the Shiv Sena have been trying to change the name to gain political mileage, the plea further claimed.
“The purpose behind changing the name of Aurangabad is to spread hatred among the community towards Muslims so as to gain political advantage,” the petition alleged.
The plea claims that the petitioners through their lawyers then sought copies of the documents but they received no response, it was contended.
The plea reads: “During Maratha rule and/or British rule, nobody demanded to change the name of Aurangabad. However, after the formation of Shiv Sena and other political parties in order to polarise the society on religious and sectarian line for their political gain started picking up the issue of changing the name of Aurangabad from the year 1988. …The present government without there being any reason is obliquely trying to change the name of Aurangabad.”
Although there is an HC bench at Aurangabad, the PIL has been filed in Mumbai since the major cause of action had arisen within Mumbai.
The PIL is likely to come up for hearing on August 1.
