A division bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice C.K. Mahajan issued the directions recently on a petition filed by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) filed through counsel Vijay Shankardas, challenging the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification of August 1995 renaming Connaught Place and Connaught Circus as the Rajiv Chowk and Indira Circus.

INTACH had contended in the petition that the decision to rename Connaught Place and Circus was ``illegal, arbitrary, ultra-vires, against established guidelines and practice and beyond the competence of the government and therefore liable to be quashed and set aside''.

Announcing the decision hours before the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi seems politically motivated, the petitioner said. Senior advocate Shankardas had submitted that the proposal for renaming had come up five times in two years and had been rejected in the light of established guidelines and practice.

The petitioner further said that if exceptions to the established guidelines and practice are allowed to be made and decisions to rename historical sites, monuments and roads are made in the dark, as in the present case, then each successive change of government will alter names of such places according to its own priorities and fancies.

The bench directed Central Government standing counsel Meera Bhatia and Delhi Government counsel Arvind Nigam to place before the court by September 21, the next date of hearing, findings of the deliberations by the government officials.

INTACH in its petition, filed around two years ago, had claimed that the MHA had no power to issue the notification under the NDMC Act to change the name of places of historic importance. The government had neither consulted NDMC over the issue nor organised any public debate, which was necessary before taking a decision, the petitioner claimed. ``It is submitted that whimsical and illegal decisions, as in the present case, would establish a dangerous trend.'' The petitioner prayed that the August 20, 1995 order renaming Connaught Place and Connaught Circus be set aside. The case will come up for hearing again on September 21.