NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered the government to scrap a state policy of subsidizing the travel of thousands of Muslims to Makkah for the annual Haj pilgrimage. The court also cut the strength of the controversial Haj Goodwill Delegation.
The court yesterday directed the government to eliminate the Haj subsidy in the next 10 years.
Muslim members of Parliament welcomed the decision.
Coming out against the government policy of subsidies to pilgrims going for Haj every year, an apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.P. Desai also cut the strength of goodwill delegation sent by the government.
“We hold that the policy is best done away with and it should be eliminated over 10 years,” said Justice Aftab Alam, striking down New Delhi’s argument that pilgrims were entitled to the state help once in their lifetime.
The bench said that the goodwill delegation sent by the government every year to Makkah would comprise only two members — its leader and the deputy leader. At present, the goodwill delegation consists of more than 30 members who take their spouses also with them.
In the course of the hearing that commenced on Oct. 18, 2011, when the apex court stayed a Bombay High Court order, the central government offered to reduce the strength of the goodwill delegation to 10 members.
The court was told that the delegation, besides conveying India’s goodwill to Saudi government on the occasion of Haj, also interacts with the “Haj pilgrims from India, understands their issues and takes up the same with the Saudi Arabian authorities.”
The court also sought details from the state-level Haj committees and the Haj Committee of India as to how subsidy was given and what the total expenditure on it was.
Welcoming the court‘s decision on Haj subsidies, the Muslim members of Parliament yesterday sought an arrangement, which will directly benefit the pilgrims and improve standards of the minority community.
“The Haj subsidy of Rs. 600 crore is given to Air India and not pilgrims... Under this garb of subsidy, it (money) is going to Air India which is a sick airline,” Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters outside Parliament.
Owaisi said, “This Rs 600 crore should be invested in education of minority girls because their education standards are very very low.”
Congress MP Saifuddin Soz also welcomed the decision and said, “Right wing extremists also opposed this (Haj subsidy) and Muslim Ulemas also called it un-Islamic.”
FROM: AGENCIES
For better facilities to the pilgrims, he sought a corporation for the purpose. Owaisi asked the government to renegotiate the agreement with Saudi Arabia under which only Air India and Saudi Airline are allowed to carry passengers for Haj. “You renegotiate it, call a global tender, the prices will come down,” he said.
Soz said, “20 Muslim leaders, including myself, have petitioned to GoI that the subsidy should be withdrawn, and instead of it they should set up a corporation on the lines of one in Malaysia, which will be more advantageous for the pilgrims.”
The Supreme Court was hearing an appeal filed by the Center challenging a Bombay High Court judgment which had directed the External Affairs Ministry to allow certain private operators to handle 800 of the 11,000 pilgrims earmarked under the VIP quota subsidized by the government.
India’s top court orders govt to scrap Haj subsidy
