M A I N   N E W S

SC cuts Haj discretionary quota from 11,000 to 500
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 23
The Supreme Court today rejected the government’s proposal for a discretionary quota of 11,000 Haj pilgrims, slashing such allocations to 500.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai fixed the discretionary quota for the President at 100, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister at 75 and the External Affairs Minister at 50. The Haj Committee of India (HCOI) would enjoy a quota of 200.

As many as 1.25 lakh pilgrims are slated to undertake the Haj pilgrimage this year. On May 8, this year the same SC Bench had passed an order for totally phasing out the Haj subsidy in 10 years, observing that there was no provision in the Holy Koran for undertaking the visit to Mecca at the expense of the government or others. It had also expressed its reservations over the discretionary quotas.

In today’s order, the apex court asked the high courts not to entertain any petition relating to Haj and that all such pleas should be transferred to the SC. The Bench issued the directive after being informed by the government that petitions were pending in various HCs.

In an affidavit filed in the SC, the External Affairs Ministry had proposed a quota of 5,550 pilgrims to be chosen on the recommendations from the offices of the President, Vice-President, PM, External Affairs Minister, 33 other Union Cabinet Ministers, 31 Governors/Lt Governors and 30 Chief Ministers, besides MPs, eminent persons and senior government officers.

Of the 5,550, 2,500 seats had been reserved for the Bohra community but subsequently merged with the government quota as the community received 3,000 seats directly from the Saudi Arabian authorities.

Under the allocations proposed by the ministry, 1,500 seats were reserved for Jammu and Kashmir, while 2,500 seats were for states/UTs with applications in excess of their allocated quota for Haj 2012.

For Haj 2011, 2,500 seats were allocated for 20 states/UTs which had received applications in excess of their allocated quota in proportion to their Muslim population. 300 seats were reserved for Khadim-ul-Hujjaj, 400 for Mehrams, 500 seats for smaller states/UTs, 500 for HCOI, Mumbai chairperson, members and officials of HCOI, Mumbai, and state Haj committees.

The break-up

• President’s discretionary quota 100, Vice-President and Prime Minister’s 75 and the External Affairs Minister at 50
• The Haj Committee of India (HCOI) would enjoy a quota of 200.
• As many as 1.25 lakh pilgrims are slated to undertake Haj this year