The Supreme Court today struck down the government's policy of giving subsidies to Haj pilgrims and directed that it be progressively eliminate it within a period of 10 years. A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Ranjana Prakash Desai also directed the government to reduce the number of its representatives in the Prime Minister's goodwill delegation to two. It said the court will look into the functioning of Haj Committee of India and its process for selecting people for Haj pilgrimage. The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre challenging a Bombay High Court judgement in this regard. The Bombay High Court had directed the Ministry of External Affairs to allow certain private operators to handle 800 of the 11,000 pilgrims earmarked under the VIP quota subsidised by the government. The bench while hearing the plea of the Centre had expanded the purview of the plea and decided to look into the legality of the government's policy on granting subsidies to Haj pilgrims