GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has set a 90-day deadline for the Haj Committee of India to dispose of two representations, filed by aggrieved Haj pilgrims from Assam alleging their excess flight fare was not refunded.
They said they had paid for chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah but were made to board a normal flight.
During the hearing of a group writ petition filed by 137 pilgrims, the petitioners’ counsel FZ Mazumdar said tender was called for chartered flight and after its finalisation, the selected Haj pilgrims from Assam were asked to deposit Rs 3,82,297 for Haj expenditure, including fare of chartered flight.
Advocate Mazumdar told The New Indian Express there were 6,302 pilgrims – 6,189 from Assam, 93 from Meghalaya and 20 from Nagaland. Citing normal flight fare, he claimed that an excess amount of Rs 40,96,30,000 was collected. He said each pilgrim should get back Rs 65,000.
An order, passed on Wednesday by the single-judge bench of Justice K Sema, said, “The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that out of Rs. 3,82,297/-, Rs.1,54,694/- was collected as air fare of the chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah. However, during the boarding at Guwahati embarkation, pilgrims of Assam were asked to take normal passenger flight instead of international chartered flight.”
“It is the case of the petitioner that though the Haj Committee of India had cancelled the chartered flight from Guwahati but the excess amount which was deposited by the pilgrims for the chartered flight was not refunded,” the order further said.
The petitioners had submitted two representations addressed to the Chief Executive Officer, Haj Committee of India, on November 22, 2023 seeking refunds but the Haj Committee has neither disposed of the representations nor refunded the amount to the petitioners so far.
The court said the counsels of the petitioners and the respondents were in unanimity that the writ petition could be disposed of with a direction to the Haj Committee of India to dispose of the representations in accordance with section-42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002.
“…this Court proposes to dispose of the writ petition with a direction to the Chief Executive Officer, Central Haj Committee Office, Mumbai…to dispose the representations submitted by the petitioner…strictly in the light of the provisions contained in section-42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002,” the court said.
“Accordingly, the Haj Committee of India…shall dispose the representations…by speaking order after hearing the petitioners and by adhering to the mandate of section-42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002,” the order said.
The court directed that all exercise for compliance of the order would be completed within 90 days from the day of the passing of the order.