The Gauhati High Court has given the Central Haj Committee of India 90 days from March 6 to dispose of two petitions filed by 137 Haj pilgrims from Assam seeking a refund of excess flight fare.
The pilgrims said they had paid for a chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah in 2023 but were made to board a normal flight.
They submitted two representations addressed to the chief executive officer of the Central Haj Committee of India on November 22, 2023, seeking refunds but the committee did not respond.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the petitioners’ counsel F.Z. Mazumdar said the 137 Haj pilgrims were selected after the chartered flight was finalised following a tender. Each of these pilgrims was asked to deposit Rs 3,82,297 for Haj expenditure, including the fare of the chartered flight.
“A total of 6,302 Haj pilgrims were selected for the trip via the chartered flight. Of these, 6,189 were from Assam, 93 from Meghalaya, and 20 from Nagaland. Going by the normal flight fare, an excess of Rs 40.96 crore was collected from the 137 pilgrims,” Mr. Mazumdar told The Hindu.
Each pilgrim should, thus, get Rs 65,000 back, he argued.
Excess fare
The order passed by the single-judge bench of Justice K. Sema on Wednesday said: “The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that out of Rs. 3,82,297, Rs.1,54,694 was collected as airfare for the chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah. However, during the boarding at Guwahati embarkation, pilgrims from Assam were asked to take a normal flight instead of an international chartered flight.”
“It is the case of the petitioner that though the Haj Committee of India cancelled the chartered flight from Guwahat the excess amount which was deposited by the pilgrims for the chartered flight was not refunded,” the order further said.
The court said the counsels of the petitioners and the respondents agreed that the writ petition could be disposed of with a suitable direction to the Haj Committee.
“…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 representations submitted by the petitioner… strictly in the light of the provisions contained in Section 42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002,” the order read.
“Accordingly, the Haj Committee of India… shall dispose (of) 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.
A 90-day deadline was set for compliance.
