Centre cleared renaming of Osmanabad to Dharashiv; decision on Aurangabad under process: HC told

The Maharashtra cabinet headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had last year approved the name of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.

The Union government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court it has approved the change of name of Osmanabad in Maharashtra to Dharashiv, but the approval of renaming Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was under process.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne had last month sought to know from the Centre if it had received any proposal from the Maharashtra government over the change of names of these two cities and if yes then whether the proposal was accepted.

On Wednesday, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the bench that the Centre had received a proposal from the state government.

"As far as Osmanabad is concerned, we have already notified the state on February 2 that there was no objection to name change, but there is no decision yet on the name change of Aurangabad. It is still in process," he said.

The court accepted the statement and posted the matter for further hearing on February 27.

The bench was hearing two public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the government's decision to change the names.

The Maharashtra cabinet headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had last year approved the name of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.

On July 16, 2022, the Government Resolution (GR) was passed by a two-member cabinet of CM Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis for changing the name and then forwarded it to the central government.

One petition filed by Aurangabad residents Mohammed Mushtaq Ahmed, Annasaheb Khandare and Rajesh More challenged the government's decision to rename Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

Another PIL was filed by 17 residents of Osmanabad against the government's decision to rename it as Dharashiv.

Both the petitions termed the government's decision as "politically motivated".