Coming to the rescue of an aspiring Haj pilgrim, facing the prospect of missing the last flight for pilgrimage, the Allahabad High Court today asked the Lucknow passport officer to hand over his passport by 12 noon today.

A Lucknow bench of the high court issued the order as an exceptional measure to facilitate petitioner Nisar Ahmad to catch the pilgrimage flight, the last one of which would be taking off on August 17. Ahmad had moved the court for expeditious issuance of his passport, contending that he had completed all the formalities in time, but the passport authorities were delaying its release.