Calcutta High Court on Friday admitted a petition filed by Hasmat Hussain Hambibi, challenging a recent circular of the Centre announcing that subsidy would not be provided to tax-paying citizens seeking to go to Mecca for Haj pilgrimage.

Petitioner’s counsel Sailendu Rakshit and Alam Khan argued that the circular was illegal and ultra vires to the Constitution. “It also violates the fundamental rights,” they said.

The lawyers claimed that only “persons earning a lot of money but paying no income-tax” would benefit from the proposed move. Moreover, the government was segregating tax-payers and non-tax-payers on a pilgrimage. “If the husband is a tax-payer and the wife is not, they will have to board separate planes,” the petition pointed out.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice A.K. Mathur and Justice A.K. Banerjee, asked Union government counsel Chandreyee Alam to file an affidavit and fixed the matter for hearing on December 19.