Supreme Court Directs Union Ministry Of Minority Affairs To Engage With States Which Have Not Constituted Haj Committees

The Supreme Court has directed the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs to engage with States which have not yet constituted Haj Committees in their respective States. The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala was hearing a matter pertaining to the constitution of a Central Haj Committee prescribed under Section 3 read with Section 4 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002 and State Haj Committees as per Section 17 of the Act. 

Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj informed the court that a Central Haj Committee had already been constituted and Odisha was the only state, as per his instructions, which did not have a State Haj committee yet. However, the petitioner in the matter argued that even though the Central Haj committee had been constituted, there are unfilled vacancies in the committee till date. To this, ASG Natraj stated that he would look into it and remedial action would be taken regarding the same. 

Dictating the order, CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"ASG Nataraj says that Central Haj Committee has been constituted. The petitioner submits that there are vacancies in committee. ASG states he will look into it and remedial action will be taken expeditiously. As regards State committees, ASG says only Orissa does not have one. Matter can be looked into by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs which shall engage with such states which have not yet constituted a Haj Committee."

In August 2022, the Court had directed State governments to inform the Court, by way of an affidavit, if Haj committees are constituted in their respective states. The court has also directed states to specify the names of the committee members of the Haj Committees thus constituted. Later, the court had extended time to four States to constitute Haj Committees.

The petition filed in this regard argued that the Centre and the Respondent States have failed to comply with the strict provision of the Haj Committee Act, 2002 and have failed to appoint Committees under the said statute.

In an earlier hearing, the Court was told that India does not have an operational Central Haj Committee since 2019. Also, as on October 2021, only 1 out of 19 States have a fully operational State Haj Committee, whereas all other states are either awaiting actions from State Government for appointment or don't even have a committee for more than 3 years.

Case Title: Hafiz Naushad Ahmad Azmi v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 1229/2021 PIL

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