Section 277:
Cost of return journey of pilgrims on ships other than those for which return ticket is available.
(1) The master, owner or agent of every pilgrim ship shall make all arrangements for
ensuring the return of all pilgrims in possession of a return ticket issued in India who are carried to the
Hedjaz by such ship, within a period of ninety days after the Haj day in a year:
Provided that, for the purpose of computing the said period of ninety days, no period shall be
taken into account during which the ship is prevented from carrying pilgrims on the return passage by
reason of the port of Jeddah having been declared by proper authority to be infected or by reason of
war, disturbance or any other clause not arising from any act or default of the master, owner or agent.
(2) Where any such pilgrim who has notified to the prescribed authority in the prescribed manner
his desire to embark for the return voyage is, owing to his inability to obtain accommodation within
the period of ninety days aforesaid in a ship for which the return ticket is available, detained at Jeddah
beyond the said period, the master, owner or agent of the ship in which such pilgrim was carried to the
Hedjaz shall pay to the Central Government in respect of such pilgrim such sum not exceeding double
the sum received by the master, owner or agent in respect of the return ticket as the Central
Government claims as the costs of repatriating the pilgrim, together with a sum of rupees five for each
day after the expiry of the period aforesaid during which the pilgrim has been detained at Jeddah.
(3) A certificate of such detention purporting to be made and signed by the Indian consular officer
at Jeddah shall be received in evidence in any court in India without proof of the signature or of the
official character of the person who has signed the same.