The Haj Committee Act, 2002

(1) This Act may be called the Haj Committee Act, 2002. (2) It shall come into force on such date1or dates as the Central Government may, by notification,appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and for different States.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-- (a) "bye-laws" means the bye-laws made under section 45; (b) "Chief Executive Officer or the Executive Officer" means the Chief Executive Officer of theCommittee or the Executive Officer of the State Committee appointed under sub-section (1) ofsection 16 or sub-section (1) of section 29, as the case may be; (c) "Committee" means the Haj Committee of India constituted under section 3; (d) "member" means a member of the Haj Committee of India nominated under section 4 or of aState Haj Committee nominated under section 18, as the case may be, and includes the Chairpersonand a Vice-Chairperson; (e) "notification" means a notification published in the Gazette of India or the Official Gazette ofa State, as the case may be; (f) "pilgrim" means a Muslim proceeding to, or returning from, Haj; (g) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under section 44 by the Central Government or,as the case may be, under section 47 by the State Government; (h) "State Committee" means a State Haj Committee constituted under section 18 and includesJoint State Committee; (i) "State Government", in relation to a Union territory, means the Administrator of that Unionterritory appointed by the President under article 239 of the Constitution.

(1) With effect from such date asthe Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint in this behalf, there shall beconstituted a Committee by the name of the Haj Committee of India. (2) The Committee shall be a body corporate, by the name aforesaid, having perpetual succession anda common seal with power, subject to the provisions of this Act, to acquire, hold and dispose of property,both movable and immovable, to create a charitable trust or endowment, and to contract and shall by thesaid name sue and be sued. (3) The Committee shall have its headquarters at Mumbai and as and when the Committee considersit functionally necessary, additional regional offices may be opened in consultation with the CentralGovernment.

The Committee shall consist of the following members, namely:-- (i) three members of Parliament of whom two are to be nominated by the Speaker of the Houseof the People from among its Muslim members, and one by the Chairman of the Council of Statesfrom among its Muslim members: Provided that a member of Parliament shall, upon ceasing to be a member, cease to be amember of the Committee and the Speaker of the House of the People or the Chairman of theCouncil of States, as the case may be, shall make a fresh nomination upon request by the CentralGovernment; (ii) nine Muslim members of the Committee shall be elected, three from those States sendinglargest number of pilgrims during last three years and one each from the zones as specified in theSchedule, in such manner as may be prescribed: Provided that not more than one member shall be elected from a State falling in the zone asspecified in the Schedule; (iii) four persons not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India nominatedby that Government to represent the Ministries of External Affairs, Home, Finance and CivilAviation, as ex officio members; (iv) seven Muslim members shall be nominated by the Central Government from among thefollowing categories of persons, namely:-- (a) two members who have special knowledge of public administration, finance, education,culture or social work and out of whom one shall be a Shia Muslim; (b) two women members, out of them one shall be Shia Muslim; (c) three members who have special knowledge of Muslim theology and law, out of them oneshall be a Shia Muslim.

As soon as may be after the nomination of the members of theCommittee under section 4, the Central Government shall publish in the Official Gazette the names of allsuch members.