HC dismisses PIL challenging renaming of Allahabad as Prayagraj

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL challenging the renaming of Allahabad as Prayagraj, saying the petitioner should first approach the Uttar Pradesh government with the grievance.

Acting Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice CD Singh granted liberty to the petitioner to file a representation before the state government on the issue.

The court order came on a day the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet at a meeting presided by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved renaming of Allahabad and Faizabad divisions as Prayagraj and Ayodhya respectively.

The high court refused to grant any relief to petitioner Sunita Sharma saying she directly moved the court by filing a Public Interest Litigation without first approaching the state government.

The petition had challenged renaming of Allahabad as Prayagraj and had sought quashing of a government order in this regard. It had urged the court to issue writ of mandamus directing the state government to do away with the changing of the city name.

The bench said, It is well settled that any person who seeks writ of mandamus must approach the authority concerned with his demand and in case of refusal only one can seek directions in the form of writ of mandamus from court.

In the petition, it was prayed that the court should declare as unconstitutional the state government's notification of October 18 by which Allahabad district was renamed as Prayagraj.

During the course of hearing, the petitioner's counsel also raised the issue that the Ardh Kumbh was wrongly renamed as Kumbh 2019.

However, the court refused to entertain the issue saying the petitioner had neither made any prayer in this regard in her petition nor had she approached the state government raising this issue.