The Union government is guilty of ignoring Supreme Court directives
Abdul Bari Masoud | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — For the past four years, a persistent demand for the formation of a full-fledged Haj Committee of India, as mandated by the Haj Act of 2002, has gone unheeded. Despite the Supreme Court’s categorical order, the government did not act. Reason: The Haj Act requires the nomination of three MPs on the Haj panel and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no Muslim member in Parliament. The delay in the formation of the Haj panel is in clear contempt of the apex court order. It shows that the BJP-led government is least bothered about minority-related affairs, as has happened with other minority-related bodies. The government trumpets the ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ slogan frequently, but its actions do not match with words.
The government’s dilly-dallying tactics and insensitive attitude compelled Hafiz Naushad Ahmad Azmi, a prominent activist and former member of the Central Haj Committee, to seek legal action. He filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court in October 2021, which has been heard nine times. During the tenth hearing on March 27, 2023, the Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, directed the Ministry of Minority Affairs to form the Haj Committee within three months. Despite this unequivocal order, no committee was formed within the stipulated time, leading to a contempt petition in October 2023.
The Chief Justice then directed the Union government to explain the delay by April 15, 2024. The affidavit, which was submitted on April 12, 2024, exposed several serious problems, one of them being the absence of nominations from important officials. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar did not submit any nominations. The Haj Act of 2002 requires a 23-member Haj Committee of India with three members of Parliament (two from Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha) on the panel.
The apex court’s subsequent orders for action forced a majority of state governments to establish their State Haj Committees, but the Central Haj Committee remains to see the light of the day, which brings the issue back to the judicial spotlight.
As of now, AP Abdullakutty heads the lame-duck Haj Committee with two women vice chairpersons, Mafuja Khatun and S. Munawari Begum. Abdullakutty is a former CPI(M) MP from Kerala who joined the BJP and became the chairman in April 2022. The two women are also from the BJP stock.
The committee is functioning without any members as the Haj Committee of India’s website displays only the three above-mentioned names.
Activist Azmi told Clarion India that after a petition was filed in October 2021, a half-hearted notification for an eight-member committee was issued on April 1, 2022. This notification blatantly violated the Haj Act of 2002. Two members, who should have been Islamic religious scholars, were replaced with BJP workers. One member, Zafarul Islam (a BJP spokesperson), was already a member of the Uttar Pradesh State Committee from the Rajya Sabha quota. To top it all, elections for the chairman and vice chairman were held on April 27, 2022, with only 19 out of 23 members eligible to vote and run for office, rendering the entire process illegal.
Azmi also claimed that three members of the committee, who were to be Muslim religious scholars, were replaced with BJP workers when the committee was formed in 2016. Moreover, the committee’s original term — which expired on June 20, 2019 — was twice extended for an additional six months. In violation of all laws, regulations, and customs, an executive chairman was also nominated to this committee, which resulted in a total abuse of authority on the part of the committee, the minister, and the nodal ministry.
In 2016, the PMO ordered the Haj department to be moved from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Ministry of Minority Affairs. According to Azmi, this move set the rot in the functioning of Haj affairs. The Haj Department under the External Affairs Minister used to upload the Haj Committee’s action reports on its website, which was discontinued after it was transferred to the minority ministry.
According to the Haj Act of 2002, the new committee should be formed four months before the end of its term.
The act clearly states that the Haj committee shall consist of the following members, namely:
* Three members of Parliament, of whom two are to be nominated by the Speaker of the House of the People from among its Muslim members and one by the Chairman of the Council of States from among its Muslim members:
Provided that a member of Parliament shall, upon ceasing to be a member, cease to be a member of the committee, and the Speaker of the House of the People or the Chairman of the Council of States, as the case may be, shall make a fresh nomination upon request by the Central Government;
* Nine Muslim members of the committee shall be elected, three from states sending the largest number of pilgrims during the last three years and one each from the zones as specified in the Schedule, in such manner as may be prescribed;
Provided that not more than one member shall be elected from a state falling in the zone as specified in the Schedule;
* Four persons not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India nominated by that Government to represent the Ministries of External Affairs, Home, Finance, and Civil Aviation as ex-officio members;
* Seven Muslim members shall be nominated by the Central Government from among the following categories of persons, namely: (a) two members who have special knowledge of public administration, finance, education, culture, or social work and out of whom one shall be a Shia Muslim;
* Two women members, out of whom one shall be Shia Muslim;
* Three members who have special knowledge of Muslim theology and law; out of them one shall be a Shia Muslim.
Twice elected to the Uttar Pradesh State Haj Committee, Azmi has drawn attention to several corruption-related issues, including building boundary walls, leasing land valued at crores of rupees in the name of camp offices, and obtaining approval for maps.
The law states that camp offices have to be set up in Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Calicut, and Kolkata, along with Mumbai. In consultation with the authorities, the Central Haj Committee may open offices in these locations. Furthermore, the Central Office Haj building underwent maintenance worth crores of rupees, and big decorations with the minister’s nameplates were put up in at least ten spots throughout the Haj Committee building, which is a violation of both tradition and regulations.
The Central Haj Committee’s property and its transactions of billions of rupees annually are the endowment of the community. Muslims want to know how the money is being used and in which bank it was parked. They also want to know how much money the Haj Committee of India made between 2016 and 2024. To uncover the truth, a thorough investigation into each of these matters is necessary.
Azmi sought a thorough investigation into these works and transactions to uncover corruption worth millions of rupees.
Haj travelers in 2022 were coerced into paying outrageous sums of money for sheets, bags, and suitcases, which led to a massive scam involving millions of rupees. Traditionally, two sets of ihram — the traditional garments worn during the Haj — and two hundred riyals were given to Haj pilgrims upon arrival at the airport. Furthermore, embarkation places were chosen nationwide based on districts, which left pilgrims perplexed by their alternatives. Smaller embarkation sites had fewer pilgrims; therefore, the expense of traveling from these locations rose dramatically, which in turn decreased the number of pilgrims from these areas.
Smaller embarkation sites that had been established at the request of state Haj committees before 2018 through the Central Haj Committee via the central government appeared to be the target of this arrangement. This arrangement ought to be restored to its pre-2018 status. The Haj fares skyrocketed in certain embarkation points up to Rs 1.40 lakh.
Azmi also held a press conference to draw attention to the Haj management’s corruption and dismal condition of affairs and how the Haj Committee and other minority organisations are being undermined by the government.
The government was instructed by the Supreme Court to establish a full committee before August 31, 2024, in compliance with all provisions of the Haj Act of 2002. Regarding this, the ministry sought six names from the zonal representatives in a notification released on July 19, 2022, which is entirely illegal and unworkable and regards the committee established on April 1, 2022 as the legal committee.
Azmi wrote a letter on June 22 to Minority Affairs Minister Kiran Rijiju, without any response to date. It seems that the minister is not interested in making the Haj panel a transparent and lawful body, Azmi said and added that earlier a letter was sent to the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretary of the Ministry on May 21, 2024. Subsequently, on June 22, 2024, a letter was sent to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Minority Affairs to act on the SC order and ensure that the Muslim law scholars appointed under the religious category present an affidavit of their qualifications as Muftis. This has happened as a result of mistakes the government made when it formed committees twice under this quota.
Azmi urged opposition leaders to raise the Haj Committee matter in the ongoing budget session of Parliament. Kiren Rijiju, chaired the inter-ministerial Haj review meeting in New Delhi along with MoS George Kurian and other senior officials on July 19 but did not say a word about the formation of the Haj Committee.