Observing that there was no urgency and that nothing would be done at an "electrifying speed", the Bombay High Court refused to grant urgent hearing in two petitions challenging the erstwhile Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government's decision to change names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad.
A division bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Kishore Sant said: "There is no urgency. There are so many holidays this month. You (petitioners) expect the government to work? Even on working days they (government) don't work."
The court further moted: "Nothing will be done with any electrifying speed (by the government) which the petitioners are apprehending."
The HC was hearing 2 different petitions challenging the renaming of the 2 cities alleging that the move is "politically motivated" and that the same would lead to "religious and communal hatred".
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Three Aurangabad residents, Mohammed Mushtaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More, had filed the petition last week challenging the renaming of their city to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
Another petition was filed on Monday by 17 residents of Osmanabad opposing renaming of their city's name to Dharashiv.
On June 29, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray in its last cabinet meeting decided to rename both the cities.
Interestingly, on July 16, the new government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde passed a fresh proposal renaming the cities.
The plea challenging the renaming of Osmanabad said that even in 1998 there was an attempt to rename the city to Dharashiv but it did not fructify.
Similarly, an attempt was aborted in 2001 to rename Aurangabad.
“During the 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 to polarise the society on religious and sectarian lines 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,” read the plea regarding renaming Aurangabad.
Further, the plea said the city has a history and rich culture and parties including the Shiv Sena have been trying to change the name for political mileage. Also, the pleas claim that the decisions were taken by the government without taking into consideration public sentiments and in complete disregard to provisions of the Constitution.
The plea sought to declare the July 16 decision of the state government and the recommendation of the divisional commissioner of Aurangabad and the 2020 resolution of the municipal corporation towards changing the name of the city to be declared null and void and be set aside.
Pending the hearing, the plea also sought directions to restrain respondent authorities from changing the name of Aurangabad.
The HC has kept both the petitions for hearing on August 23.
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