By Muslim Mirror Network

New Delhi: An unconstitutional and discriminatory Office Memorandum/Order was issued by the Haj Division of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India on 20th March 2023, according to which only the Central Police Force employees will be allowed to serve & travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the Haj 2023 pilgrimage period, as the Haj Officers and Haj Assistants this year for the purpose of service on deputation.

In a press statement, Advocate Mr. Aslam Ahmed said that muslim employees working in the other states and departments have been prohibited this time from serving in deputation team for the Haj 2023 period.

The PIL petitioner Mr. Aamir Javed, Advocate had addressed a communique dated 23 March 2023 to the Hon’ble Minority Affairs Minister Ms. Smriti Irani, and had appealed to the ministry to amend the impugned Office Memorandum/Order, and allow the employees of all the States/UTs and departments, for the purpose of applying to the deputation service, in line with the constitutionally guaranteed right.

However, no response or assistance was received from the Ministry in this regard, and therein the petitioner was constrained to knock at the doors of the Delhi High Court, under a Public Interest Litigation petition.

It is notable that the operation of the impugned Office Memorandum/Order causes discrimination volte-face between Government employees, at the outset. Speaking further in this regard, Delhi High Court Advocate Raees Ahmed, a former member of the Delhi Minority Commission Advisory Committee and PIL petitioner, also stated and pointed out that, if the employees are not selected from all the states, the pilgrims will face linguistic problems during the Haj pilgrimage period. Hajis from all the States of India go to perform Haj, and all of them do not know English, Hindi or Urdu and many of the Hajis speak regional states languages. Therein, it is difficult to ascertain as to how these regional language speaking Hajis will be prejudiced, and deeply affected. In fact, the Haj Committee and the Consulate General of India at Jeddah will also face this linguistic problem as well as inconvenience which in turn will have a domino effect to the millions of pilgrims going from India.

It is noteworthy that the petitioner Advocate Amir Javed recently filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh and the Hon’ble High Court was please to order 15 percent extra fees to be refunded by the schools to the parents during the Corona epidemic, which brought relief to millions of people.

Advocate Aslam Ahmed and his team had fought that legal battle, and now in this case before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, his legal team includes Advocate Shabista Nabi, Advocate Raees Ahmed, Advocate Shiv Kumar Chauhan, and Advocate Rohith Murugan Subramoniam. They will join the legal fight against the violation of the crucial constitutionally guaranteed rights.