Gauhati High Court directs Haj Committee to address pilgrims' refund plea within 90 days

The Gauhati High Court has disposed of a writ petition filed by Haj pilgrims from Assam regarding the non-refund of excess airfare collected for Haj 2023. The petitioners contended that they were charged Rs 3,82,297 per person, which included Rs 1,54,694 for a chartered flight from Guwahati to Jeddah. However, despite the payment, the pilgrims were boarded on regular passenger flights instead of the promised international chartered flight.  

Alleging that the cancellation of the chartered flight by the Haj Committee of India resulted in undue charges, the petitioners claimed that the excess amount collected for the airfare had not been refunded.

Despite submitting multiple representations to the Chief Executive Officer of the Haj Committee seeking a refund, no action had been taken, prompting the petitioners to seek judicial intervention.

During the hearing, the counsel for both parties, advocate H.K.J. Ahmed and S.K. Medhi concurred that the matter could be resolved by directing the Haj Committee to dispose of the representations as per Section 42 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002. Taking this into account, the Court ordered the Haj Committee to address the petitioners' grievances within 90 days by issuing a speaking order after hearing their claims.

With this directive in place, the Court disposed of the writ petition, ensuring that the matter would be resolved in a time-bound manner.

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