The petition, filed by the Anti-Renaming of Osmanabad Action Committee, has challenged two notifications issued by the state Revenue and Forest Department and the Urban Development Department on January 1, 1999, renaming the district. The committee contends that the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's decision to rename Osmanabad is guided by strong feelings of Hindu communalism and reflects its fundamentalist and parochial tendencies. It alleges that the government, which has an antipathy towards past Muslim rulers and the religion itself, is bent on wiping out both from the history of the country.

Counsel for the petitioner, Satish Talekar, points out that the decision hassparked violence outbursts in the district and could lead to a grave situation if implemented.

The renaming decision is based on conjectures, assumptions and distorted facts without seeking any opinion from experts or historians, the petition states. Moreover, the state government neither heard or considered any of the 8,500 objections it had received after it declared its intention to rename the district.

The unanimous resolutions passed by various local self-government bodies like the Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samitis, Municipal Councils and the Agriculture Produce Market Committee expressing strong disapproval on the renaming decision too were ignored by the state government, the petition states.

Besides, the state government made no proposal to the Union government on its decision to rename the district assuming that the Centre would clear it without verifying its jurisdiction to take such decisions as the BJP was at the helm in Delhi as well.

Moreover, the petition points out, the stategovernment is legally barred from renaming a district, town, village or tehsil unless there is an alteration of the limits of the revenue area by amalgamation of division of the district.