New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the earmarking of an "exclusive quota" for Haj pilgrims aged 70 and above.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud said that people who have crossed 70 years would get the benefit of a separate exclusive quota and those between the age group of 65 to 69 who have applied five times or more would also get the benefit of the policy decided by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

"we direct that the persons who come within the age group of 65 to 69 years and are not successful in going on pilgrimage even once, despite applying for 5th time or more, shall also be covered," the court said in its order.

The court order came in the course of the hearing of a plea by the Kerala Haj committee seeking more quota for the Haj pilgrimage as it has far more applicants and not many of them can be accommodated. It has contended that Bihar, which gets more quota for Haj pilgrims, is not able to utilise it as there are not many applicants there.

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Sirsi (Karnataka), Apr 8 (PTI): The police in Uttar Kannada went into a tizzy on Tuesday after they found fake currency notes of Rs 500 denomination from a house in Dandeli with 'movie shooting purpose only' written on them.

Based on a tip-off, police searched a rented house at Gandhinagar in Dandeli and confiscated the fake currency notes along with a money counting machine.

Arshad Khan, who is said to be from Goa, was staying as a tenant in the house belonging to Noorjan Jhunjuwadkar, police said.

Police were informed after Jhunjuwadkar noticed that Khan was absent from the house for the past one month.

The fake currency notes had the inscription 'Reverse Bank of India' on them, but did not have the signature of the RBI governor, police said.

The notes were printed on a shining paper with only zeros written in the place of the number, and 'movie shooting purpose only' inscribed on them, police said.

A hunt is on to trace Khan to question him about the seizure, they added.