The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to restrict Haj pilgrimage at government subsidy to Muslims only as a “once in a lifetime” affair as against the existing policy of “once in five years”. In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the government said, the new guidelines have been framed to ensure that priority is given to those applicants who have never performed Haj. It said, priority will be given to those who are in the 70 plus category and those who had unsuccessfully applied thrice earlier for the subsidy.

The Centre's affidavit comes in the backdrop of certain searching questions raised by the apex court on February 24. A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai had directed the Centre to provide details of subsidy given by it and criteria adopted for allocation of seats to state committees.