Supreme Court directs Centre to eliminate Haj subsidy

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the government to do away with the policy of subsidy to Muslims for annual Haj pilgrimage.

An apex court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam further directed the government to completely eliminate the subsidy for Haj pilgrims in the next ten years.

"We see no justification for charging from pilgrims an amount that is much lower than even the normal air fare for a return journey to Jeddah," Justice Alam said.

"If all the facts are made known, a good many of the pilgrims would not be very comfortable in the knowledge that their Haj is funded to a substantial extent by the government."

Justice Alam opined that the subsidy money may be more profitably used for upliftment of the community in education and other indices of social development.

The court in its order also said that a goodwill delegation sent by the government every year to Mecca will comprise only two members. At present, the goodwill delegation consists of 30 members.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre challenging a Bombay High Court judgement which had directed the Ministry of External Affairs to allow certain private operators to handle 800 of the 11,000 pilgrims earmarked under the VIP quota subsidised by the government.

Muslim members of Parliament have welcomed the decision. "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 (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters.

India provides subsidy to over one lakh pilgrims who go to Mecca and Madina annually and spends over Rs.600 crore ($120 million) every year on the pilgrimage.

The Haj Committee of India (HCI) has received over 300,000 applications every year since 2009. According to IANS, the government provided subsidised air fare to 120,131 pilgrims in 2009, to 126,191 pilgrims in 2010, and 125,051 pilgrims in 2011.

It spent Rs.690 crore in 2009, Rs.600 crore in 2010 and Rs.605 crore in 2011, according to the figures government provided to parliament last month.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday welcomed the court's direction and said the Haj subsidy had been under consideration for over the last four years.