New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Centre on the Kerala Haj Committee's plea challenging the practice of allotting annual Haj quota seats on the basis of a state's Muslim population instead of the actual demand.

The committee has also challenged the rationale behind granting 30 per cent of the seats to private operators, who charge much more than the Haj Committee of India.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud refrained from staying the 2018 Haj guidelines after attorney-general K.K. Venugopal submitted that any injunction would adversely affect the pilgrimage, scheduled to take place in August this year, as the process had already been started and would conclude by May.

The court, however, made it clear to Venugopal that the allotment of seats to be made by the Haj Committee of India for this year shall be subject to the final order to be passed by it.

"The whole exercise has to follow a timeline. This will make the entire process uncertain," Venugopal said, opposing the Kerala Haj Committee's plea for a stay.

The committee, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Harris Beran, assailed the existing policy as being unconstitutional and devoid of rationale as the state that had the highest number of applicants every year got a raw deal compared to bigger states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which had fewer applicants.

Bhushan said approximately 12,000 seats had been set aside for Bihar, while around 6,000 applications had been received for Haj, which means around 6,000 seats would remain vacant.

Kerala, he said, gets the largest number of applicants for Haj every year. This year, there are over 95,000 applicants from the southern state and only one in every 15 applicants has been allotted a seat.

Bhushan prayed for a stay on the draw of lots till the matter was disposed of.

India's annual Haj quota is around 1,70,000, which is divided between the Haj Committee of India and the private tour operators in a 70:30 ratio.

"Every Muslim in India must have an equal opportunity to go for Haj," Bhushan said, arguing that the draw of lots should be on an all-India basis so that more Muslims, irrespective of their states, can apply for the pilgrimage.

He also submitted that the practice of allotting 30 per cent of the seats to private operators deterred the poor from going on the pilgrimage, an argument with which the court seemed to agree.

The private operators charge in excess of Rs 4 lakh from each Haj pilgrim, compared to the Rs 37,000 taken by the Haj Committee of India.

"Why not the Haj committee? Why private tour operators, which charge four times the amount from a person interested in going for Haj?" Chief Justice Misra asked Venugopal, who said he would seek instructions from the Centre.