Plea in court docket docket says it is the constitutional correct of every Muslim employee of govt to be despatched on Haj deputation: Why the argument is ridiculous

An advocate, Aamir Javed, has filed a plea throughout the Delhi High Court claiming that it is the “constitutional right” of every Muslim employee of the Central and State authorities to be despatched on deployment to Jeddah all through the Haj pilgrimage. The petition throughout the High Court challenges the office memorandum by the Ministry of Minority Affairs dated twentieth of March 2023 that changed the foundations to let solely CAPF cadre be deployed all through the Haj pilgrim and by no means all central and state authorities employees.

The High Court on Wednesday (fifth April 2023) requested the Ministry of Minority Affairs, headed by Smriti Irani, to answer to the plea challending the order dated twentieth March. A bench of Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad requested the Haj Division to place their response on file sooner than the next date of listening to, which has been decided for May tenth.

“The petition is being filed on the basis that other Central or State government/UT administration employees are not eligible for any deputation in the office memorandum… dated March 20, 2023, which earlier was a practice of the Government of India to send male and female members of the Muslim community who are employees of various government departments on deputation on a temporary basis to Consulate General of India, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to render assistance to Haj pilgrims,” the plea said.

The plea reportedly said that the work involved is administrative and subsequently, there’s no trigger why solely CAPF officers must be deployed. The plea, the reality is, went as far as to say that it was the “constitutional right” of Muslim employees to be deployed for Haj obligation and that the order violates the constitutional rights of those Muslim employees who have to serve Haj pilgrim.

What is the 20th March memorandum and what it says

The memorandum issued by the Ministry of Minority Affairs was titled “Temporary deputation of Coordinators (Admin) / Assistant Haj Officers / Haj Assistants to Consulate General of India, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Haj 2023 – regarding“.

The memorandum said, “Ministry of Minority Affairs invites on-line features from Male and Female Permanent Employees from the Muslim neighborhood, working in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) for short-term deputation to Consulate General of India, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to render assist to Haj pilgrims as Coordinators (Admin),Assistant Haj Officers (AHO)and Haj Assistants (HA) for Haj-2023. Officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) serving can also apply for the publish of Coordinator (Admin). Other Central or State Government/ UTs administration Employees aren’t eligible for any deputation. The interval of deputation in KSA shall be roughly for a interval of 02-03 months tentatively from May, 2023 to July, 2023″.

The memorandum significantly said that completely different central or state authorities/UT administration employees weren’t eligible for any deputation.

The memorandum said, “The services of the deputationists will be placed at the disposal of the Consulate General of India (CGI), Jeddah, Ministry of External Affairs during their deputation and they will be deployed by CGI, Jeddah, at various Branch offices in Makkah, Madinah, Haj terminal at Jeddah, Camps at Mina and Arafat, etc. on functional requirement basis, to render assistance to Indian Haj pilgrims and CGI Jeddah during Haj-2023. They will be deemed to be on 24 hours duty during the entire period of deputation and will be allocated tasks for specified duration depending on exigencies. No extra remuneration or compensation will be payable to them except the normal admissible Foreign Allowance. The job involves assisting the pilgrims at the office of the local Maktabs, camps, during the pilgrimage, in their daily activities, their grievances and also in performing their Haj rituals. The work would be administrative in nature and also involve coordination with local authorities, CGI, Jeddah and managing the Indian contingent of appx 1,40,000 Indian pilgrims of HCol, participating in Haj-2023”.

The copy of the memorandum could also be accessed proper right here: http://haj.nic.in/deputation/pdf/DeputationOM.pdf

Why deputing CAPF officers make sense and why the petition is senseless

Saudi Arabia primarily says that the individual worldwide places are answerable for caring for his or her very personal pilgrims and as a result of this truth, even India sends deputations to be sure that the Haj pilgrims are taken care of. Earlier, there have been over 900 Muslim employees from the Central govt, State govt and Union Territories who had been despatched on deputation to Jeddah. The disadvantage with that aspect was these deputations had no specific teaching to take care of situations that arose all through the pilgrimage.

For occasion, if there was stampede, the 900 deputations weren’t outfitted to maintain such situations since most of these deputations had been clerks, teachers and the likes, with no teaching to maintain overseas catastrophe situations.

Smriti Irani in 2023 modified the foundations. Instead of sending a contingent of untrained central/state/UT officers, she decided that CAPF males, educated to maintain catastrophe situations, could possibly be despatched on deputation to Jeddah. The decision was taken on one different basis. When untrained professionals had been despatched, they wished a contingent of 900 of us on deputation, nonetheless, when educated CAPF males are despatched on deputation, the ration of the number of officers wished per 100 pilgrim would moreover decrease. From 900 deputations, the change in tact would result in solely 300 of us being deployed.

In every situations, solely Muslim officers can apply since Jeddah does not allow non-Muslims no step foot in Mecca.

Essentially, the petition says that this step by Smriti Irani led Ministry of Minority Affairs violates the fundamental rights of Muslim employees of the central, state, and union territory admin governments because of it is their “constitutional right” to serve Haj pilgrims as Muslims.

This argument, nonetheless, is one devoid of logic. The construction permits its residents freedom to practise and advocate their religion which could primarily suggest that it permits the freedom to Muslim residents to go on Haj and perform their spiritual duties. However, the construction by no means, kind, methodology or type grants the perfect to Muslims to go on Haj on the taxpayers’ money behind the garb of “serving Haj pilgrims”.

What the petition requires is the constitutional correct to hold out their spiritual moorings on the taxpayers’ money, which, by all accounts, is a ridiculous argument. Interstingly, whereas a supposed pious Muslim is demanding his legendary “constitutional right” to hold out Haj on taxpayers’ money, the pious Muslim seems to have compromised with the reality that freeloading for a Haj pilgrimage is taken under consideration Haram throughout the very religion on the premise of which he wants the state to fund the spiritual moorings of presidency officers.