JUDGMENT

A.K. SIKRI, J.

Petitioners in Writ Petition (Civil) Nos. 4 and 33 of 2019 are the Federation/Association of the Private Tour Operators (PTOs)/ Haj Group Organisers (HGOs) who have taken up the cause on behalf of their members, namely, various PTOs/HGOs. Other two writ petitions are filed by the PTOs themselves. The issue raised in all these petitions is common. For this reason these petitions were clubbed together and counsel for all the parties were heard. We now proceed to decide the controversy by this common judgment.

2) For Muslims, place of birth of Hazrat Muhammed, i.e. Saudi Arabia, is the most sacred place. Visiting that place is pilgrimage for Muslim community, which is known as performing ‘Haj’. It is the desire of every person of Muslim faith, living anywhere in this world, to visit Saudi Arabia for performing Haj, which is normally during the last month of the Islamic calendar being eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar since the dates cannot be fixed in the latter. As the number of pilgrims during this period is unbounded, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has regulated and restricted, in public interest and for the safety of the pilgrims themselves, the