Haj pilgrims paid for chartered flight, were put on normal plane
Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court has set a deadline of 90 days for the Haj Committee of India to dispose of two representations filed by aggrieved Haj pilgrims from Assam alleging that their excess flight fare has not been refunded.
He said he had paid for a chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah but was made to sit in a normal flight.
During the hearing of a group writ petition filed by 137 pilgrims, counsel for the petitioners FZ Majumdar said that the tender for the chartered flight was called and after finalizing it, Rs 3,82,297 will be paid towards Haj expenses to the selected Haj pilgrims from Assam. Was asked to deposit Rs. Chartered flight fare.
Lawyer Majumdar told The New Indian Express that there were 6,302 pilgrims – 6,189 from Assam, 93 from Meghalaya and 20 from Nagaland. Citing the normal flight fare, he claimed that an excess amount of Rs 40,96,30,000 was collected. He said each pilgrim should get Rs 65,000 back.
An order passed on Wednesday by a single-judge bench of Justice K SEMA said, “Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that out of Rs. The airfare for chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah was Rs 3,82,297/-, Rs 1,54,694/-. However, during boarding at Guwahati Aarohan, pilgrims from Assam were asked to take a general passenger flight instead of an international chartered flight.
The order further said, “The case of the petitioner is that though the Haj Committee of India had canceled the chartered flight from Guwahati, the additional amount deposited by the pilgrims for the chartered flight was not refunded.”
The petitioners had submitted two representations addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of the Haj Committee of India on November 22, 2023, seeking refund, but the Haj Committee has so far neither disposed of the representations nor returned the amount to the petitioners.
The court said that the counsel for the petitioners and the respondents were unanimous that the writ petition may be disposed of with a direction to the Haj Committee of India to dispose of the representation 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 of the representation made by the petitioner…strictly in the light of the provisions contained in Section 42 Haj Committee Act, 2002,” the court said.
“Accordingly, the Haj Committee of India… after hearing the petitioners and following the orders of Section 42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002… will dispose of the representation,” the order said.
The court directed that all efforts to comply with the order shall be completed within 90 days from the day of passing of the order.
