The Federation of Haj Private Tour Operators (PTOs) of India moved the Supreme Court challenging the validity of a condition imposed on Haj Group Organisers (HGOs) to charge the additional quota of 10,000 seats, for the pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, on the rates of Haj Committee of India.
The court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond.
A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant issued anotice to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, but asked the petitioners’organization to keep engaging with government officials, and do not withdrawefforts to resolve the matter.
Senior advocate Salman Khursheed and Suleiman M Khanrepresenting the Federation of Haj of India, contended that the direction willbe withdrawn, as it is completely arbitrary and unreasonable.
“The condition imposed on HGOs, that is, to charge theadditional quota seats allotted to them on applicable rates of Haj Committee ofIndia is unreasonable. And, this condition has been imposed at a stage when notime is left for the HGOs to cope with the changed scenario,” said thepetition.
The court has listed the matter for further hearing on June24.
The federation termed the government’s decision against theinterest of Haj pilgrims along with the private tour operators and HGOs.
Since 2002, the government has begun evolving a system underwhich private operators/travel agents would register as PTOs and then beallocated quotas from the overall number of pilgrims specified for HGOs/PTOs.After registration as PTO, a privateoperator/travel agent would then get a fixed number of pilgrims for Haj. Forthis, the government frames a policy citing conditions required from the PTOsin the bilateral agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.