Haj subsidy
[3] The subsidy initially applied to Indian Muslim pilgrims traveling for religious reasons to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan by road and by sea.
[5] In May 2012, the Supreme Court of India bench, composed of Altamas Kabir and Ranjana Desai, ordered the government to end the practice by 2022.
[6][7] "We direct the Central government to progressively reduce the amount of subsidy so as to completely eliminate it within a period of 10 years from today," said a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai.
[8] "The subsidy money may be more profitably used for uplift of the community in education and other indices of social development," said Justice Alam, who wrote the order.
The court said it has no authority to speak on the minority community's behalf and that it would be presumptuous to tell the Muslims what was a good or bad religious practice even though it cited Quran to say that haj pilgrimage was mandatory only for those who could afford the expenses for traveling, food and accommodation.
[1][12][13] The colonial government also granted a monopoly for sea-based Haj pilgrimage by South Asian Muslims to Mogul Line ships, owned by the British company Turner Morrison & Co. Ltd.
[7] Since 1994 the round trip cost to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has been fixed at ₹12,000 (US$140) per pilgrim, and the government has footed the rest of the bill.
[18][19] The Indian government has created separate Haj air terminals for Muslim pilgrims for their convenience at major airports.
[20][21] The Ministry of Civil Aviation provided a subsidy for air travel to the pilgrims through the Haj Committee of India.
The Court cited Quran verse 97 in Surah 3, Al-e-Imran ordains as under: "In it are manifest signs (for example), the Maqam (place) of Ibrahim (Abraham); whosoever enters it, he attains security.
[24] In August 2010, the Minority Affairs Ministry formally opposed providing subsidy for Haj pilgrimage, saying the scheme was contrary to the teachings of Islam.
)[26] The centre had informed the Supreme Court that it had decided to restrict Haj pilgrimage at government subsidy to Muslims only as a "once in a lifetime" affair as against the existing policy of "once in five years".
In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the government said the new guidelines have been framed to ensure that priority is given to those applicants who have never performed Haj.
[11] Considerable criticism has been levelled against this practice, both by all Hindu organisations opposed to state funding of private pilgrimage outside India and by Muslim pressure groups.
"[7] Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid mosque, said a decade was far too long for the subsidy to be phased out.
Salman Khurshid, minister for minority affairs (2009 to 2012), expressed no surprise about the court's decision, telling reporters that discussions to "roll back the Haj subsidy" had been underway for four years.
