Delhi's Aurangzeb Road was renamed after former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
The Delhi High Court today asked New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to apprise it on what basis it decided to change the name of Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam Road in the late former president's honour.
A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath asked NDMC to file its response by September 22 while hearing a PIL seeking to restrain NDMC from issuing a notification regarding changing of the name.
"We need information on what basis you (NDMC) decided to change the name. Apprise the court the procedure you followed," the bench asked the council.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for NDMC, told the court that public notice has been given to rename the road after a "contemporaneous public icon who the country worships".
The PIL filed by advocate Shahid Ali said the decision to change the name "lacks understanding of history" and the decision was against the notification of 1975 as per which names which are part of history will not be altered.
The court also questioned the petitioner for raising controversy on the issue.
The plea has said that NDMC's move to change a historical name was bound to "adversely affect the image of India as a secular and justice-imparting country".
The plea said the "act of altering the historical name is nothing but an outcome of sick and communal politics".
On August 28, the request to change the name of the road, made by BJP MPs Mahesh Giri and Meenakshi Lekhi and the trade wing secretary of the state's ruling Aam Aadmi Party was accepted by the NDMC.