Today, the Supreme Court of India rejected a petition challenging the renaming of the city of Aurangabad to 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar'.

The bench comprises CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala the petitioner to approach the Bombay High Court. 

The petitioner challenged the approval granted by the Central and the State government to the letter of the Divisional Commissioner, Aurangabad dated 4 March 2020 which proposed that the name of the city of Aurangabad be changed to 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar'. 

Senior Advocate Birendra Saraf, counsel member of the State of Maharashtra informed the court that the matter was listed before the Bombay High Court on 27th March 2023,

Thereafter, the court held that it would not entertain the plea.

 CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"Appear before the Bombay High Court now. The High Court is seized of the matter."

As per the petitioner, he had challenged a similar attempt of renaming Aurangabad in 1996. The petition stated that the said matter travelled up to the Supreme Court, leave was granted, and status quo was ordered by the court.

However, the notification was later withdrawn by the state government and thus the matter became infructuous. The petition argued that the present attempt to rename the city was again challenged by him through a PIL which was pending in the High Court of Bombay. However, ignoring the pendency of the petition, the Union of India granted approval to the proposed change in the name of the city.