SC Orders Union Ministry of Minority Affairs To Interact With States For Setting Up Haj Committees

The Supreme Court has recently ordered the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs to interact with states that have not yet established Haj Committees in their respective states.

The bench, which included CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala, was hearing a case involving the formation of a Central Haj Committee under Section 3 read with Section 4 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002, and State Haj Committees under Section 17 of the Act.

According to Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, a Central Haj Committee had already been formed, and Odisha was the only state that did not yet have a State Haj Committee. However, the petitioner in the case contended that, notwithstanding the formation of the Central Haj committee, there are still empty positions on the committee. In response, ASG Natraj declared that he will investigate the matter and take appropriate measures.

CJI DY Chandrachud passed the order, saying, “ASG Nataraj says that the Central Haj Committee has been formed. The petitioner claims that there are committee vacancies. ASG says he will look into it and take appropriate measures as soon as possible. ASG claims that only Orissa does not have a state committee. The matter can be investigated by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, which will work with states that have not yet formed a Haj Committee.”

The Court had ordered the state governments to inform the Court, by affidavit, if Haj committees are formed in their respective jurisdictions in August 2022. The court has also ordered states to specify the names of the committee members of the newly formed Haj Committees. Later, the court had extended time to four States to constitute Haj Committees.

The petition contended that the Centre and the Respondent States violated the strict provisions of the Haj Committee Act, 2002 by failing to appoint Committees under the said statute.

In the previous hearing, the Court was already informed that India has not had an effective Central Haj Committee since 2019. Furthermore, as of October 2021, only one of the 19 states has a fully working State Haj Committee, while the rest are either awaiting action from the state government for appointment or have not had a committee for more than three years.