The Supreme Court has drastically reduced the seats to 300 from the proposed 5,050 recommended under government's discretionary and dignitaries quota for Haj 2012 pilgrims . A bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai limited the number of seats to be allocated under dignitaries quota by the President to 100, the Vice President to 75, the Prime Minister to 75 and the External Affairs Minister to 50. Government had said 2550 seats are reserved for
recommendations by dignitaries and eminent persons for needy nominees who have not been successful in the Haj Qurrah of the year.
The seats under the government's discretionary quota had gone up to 5,050 as it had transferred and merged 2500 seats reserved for the Bohra Community which got 3000 seats for Haj 2012 directly from the Saudi Authorities. The bench said 200 seats would be reserved for the Haj Committee of India as against the proposed 500. The bench noted it has no objection in allocation of seats for Haj under government rules but said that representation has to be made on reasonable basis. However, it also clarified that its remark was not meant
for the President and the Prime Minister