Allahabad High Court: This Public Interest Litigation was filed before Division Bench of Govind Mathur and Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, JJ., challenging the Notification issued by the State Government under Section 6 (2) of the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006 whereby name of the existing district of “Allahabad” was changed to “Prayagraj” and the resolution passed by Municipal Corporation where it was resolved to forward a proposal to the State Government for alteration of name.
Petitioner contended that the alteration of the name of the district was not in accordance with the scheme as provided under the Code and no reason with respect to administrative efficiency or in public interest can be seen thereby it violates Code, 2006 and Rules thereunder.
High Court viewed alteration of name was clearly a policy decision of the State Government as there are references of the site by the name of ‘Prayag’ at the confluence of rivers Ganga and Yamuna, as a major centre of culture and pilgrimage from the ancient times. The reference of this name can also be seen in the travel accounts of various foreign travelers. Court observed that petitioner had failed to bring any material to show that State Government’s decision was unreasonable, arbitrary or based on irrelevant considered as no constitutional and statutory provision were violated which could be brought within the scope of judicial review. Further, nothing was shown to see that public interest was affected by a mere change of name. Therefore, this writ petition filed as PIL was dismissed. [Allahabad Heritage Society v. State of U.P., PIL No. 4717 of 2018, decided on 26-02-2019]