Aurangabad district officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Osmanabad as Dharashiv

In June last year, during the last cabinet meeting of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray gave approval to the long-pending demand of renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad city as Dharashiv.

The MVA government collapsed the next day and Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively.

After coming to power, the Shinde-Fadnavis government had said that the Thackeray-led dispensation’s decision to rename these places was illegal as it was taken after the governor had asked the coalition government to prove its majority in the state Assembly.

In July last year, the new government under BJP and rebel Shiv Sena gave the cabinet approval to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively.

It may be noted that during the MVA government’s last cabinet meeting, Aurangabad was renamed as Sambhaji Nagar only, but the Shinde-Fadnavis government added the prefix ‘Chhatrapati’ to it.

According to the notification issued by the Revenue Department on Friday night, the suggestions and objections sought a few months ago about the renaming of the districts were considered by the government and the decision to change the names at the sub-division, village, taluka and district levels has been taken.

Meanwhile the state’s decision to rename the two districts from Marathwada region is likely to be challenged before the Bombay High Court soon.

The decision was taken after the High Court on August 30 had disposed of a batch of petitions challenging the proposed renaming of the Aurangabad and Osmanabad revenue areas, including district, sub-divisions, taluka and village, as withdrawn by the petitioners.

The state government had told a bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya that the final notification for renaming of district and revenue areas were not issued yet and objections from public invited are still under consideration, therefore, a challenge to proposed renaming of revenue areas at present stage was premature.

The state government, through Advocate General Birendra Saraf, had continued the statement that before the final notification for renaming of revenue areas is issued, the proposed names will not be used in any manner in relation to revenue and district areas by the authorities.

The court had noted that the petitioners can challenge the final notification for renaming of revenue areas once it is issued by the state government. Friday night’s decision is likely to be challenged in the Bombay High Court soon.

Meanwhile, the HC will hear the challenge to the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively, on October 4.