AL AMEEN HAJ GROUP Vs. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer in all these writ petitions filed by few Private Tour Operators is for direction to the respondents to consider them also for allotment of Haj Pilgrim Quota for 'Haj 2010' under the quota allotted to Private Tour Operators (hereinafter called as 'PTOS').

(2.) We have heard counsel appearing for the petitioners and Mr. T.P.M. Ibrahim Khan, Assistant Solicitor General appearing for the respondents.

(3.) As in last year the pilgrim quota allotted to India by the Government of Saudi Arabia is 1,60,491. Out of this 1,15,000 pilgrims are handled by the Haj Committee constituted under the Haj Committee Act, 2002 and balance 45, 491 are to be provided all facilities through PTOS. Until 2008 only 288 tour operators were registered by the Ministry and they were being allotted Haj Quota on an exclusive basis. Since applications filed by other tour operators were not responded to by the Ministry, several PTOS before the commencement of Haj season 2009 approached various High Courts in the country for appropriate directions to the respondents to consider allotment of Haj Quota to them as well. The writ petitions were disposed of by High Courts directing respondents to consider allotment of quota to all eligible PTOS in 2009 itself. Even though judgments of Madras High Court are produced, we feel it sufficient to refer to one of the orders produced i.e. SLP 20130/2008 which is against judgment of the Madras High Court in W.A. 867/2008. The Hon'ble Supreme Court closed the SLP recording the submission on behalf of the respondents that the case of the applicants will be considered based on clarifications issued by Government in their favour. Pursuant to orders of various High Courts and the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the Government of India issued Ext.P2 policy and based on it a list allotting quota to all eligible PTOS for Haj 2009 was issued which is produced as Ext.P3 in W.P.(C) 17946/2010. Based on the previous year's policy and allotment of Haj quota for 2009, under Exts.P2 and P3 petitioners made applications for registering them as eligible PTOS and for allotment of Haj quota for 2010. When Haj policy 2010 was announced it is seen that fresh PTOS will not be considered and therefore, the petitioners approached this Court challenging the said policy as creating monopoly for already registered PTOS and pray for directions to respondents to consider them also for allotment of Haj quota 2010. The learned Single Judge after being satisfied about the prima facie case established by the petitioners directed the Government first to entertain their applications and later by interim orders directed respondents to consider them for allotment of quota for Haj 2010 against which respondents filed separate writ appeals. While admitting the Writ Appeals both sides agreed to argue the writ petitions on merits and, therefore, we felt that the issue should be finally settled in the writ petitions itself and consequently all the writ petitions were posted and heard together. Since the issue raised and the prayer sought for are one and the same in all the cases we proceed to dispose of the writ petitions by this common judgment.