The Central government informed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it has granted “no objection” to the renaming of Osmanabad city to Dharashiv.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh informed a division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne that the proposal for renaming Aurangabad is “under consideration”.
The HC was hearing two PILs challenging the renaming of Osmanabad and Aurangabad as Dharashiv and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, respectively, alleging that the move is “politically motivated” and that the same would lead to “religious and communal hatred”.
The HC, on Jan 31, had asked the Centre to give details and the status of the proposal submitted by the state. The HC had asked the State Government whether it had called for objections, as mandated under the guidelines framed by the Union Ministry, before renaming the cities. Also, the government has been asked to explain as to how it acted upon its decision without it being final.
During the hearing on Wednesday, additional government pleader PP Kakade sought time to file their affidavit.
The counsel for the petitioners, Pradnya Talekar, submitted that immediately after Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the Chief Minister, the decision was taken to rename the cities. She said that the decision was taken without even constituting a proper Cabinet consisting of 12 duly elected ministers. Besides, neither any objections were called for nor any compelling reason for such a drastic decision was stated. It was further pointed out that the state had taken the decision despite the fact that on an earlier occasion, the Supreme Court had granted ‘status-quo’. The HC has kept the matter for hearing on Feb 24.
