Writ petition becomes non-maintainable when challenged contractual posts are filled through completed fresh recruitment.

The petitioners were engaged in services under the Women and Child Development Department, initially through respondent No. 5, a private society, whose services were subsequently taken over by the State Government.

They challenged the Director’s advertisement dated 22 December 2025 inviting applications for contractual posts under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (Mission Vatsalya), asserting that their long-standing services ought to have been absorbed or regularised rather than replaced by fresh appointees.

During the proceedings, the petitioners’ contractual engagements were terminated by order dated 30 March 2026, with directions to hand over charge.

The State submitted that the recruitment process pursuant to the advertisement had been completed and that the posts had already been filled.

Whether the petitioners were entitled to challenge the advertisement issued for fresh contractual recruitment on the ground that their existing contractual services should have been absorbed or regularised.

Whether the writ petition remained maintainable after completion of the recruitment process and filling of the posts pursuant to the impugned advertisement.

The Court applied the principle that a writ petition must afford an effective and presently available relief; where subsequent events render the challenged action incapable of yielding effective relief, the proceedings may be dismissed as not maintainable or infructuous.

It also proceeded on the principle that contractual engagement does not, by itself, create an enforceable right to absorption or regularisation, particularly where the employer undertakes a fresh recruitment process for the posts.

No specific statutory provision or judicial precedent was cited in the order.

The Court noted that the petitioners’ contractual assignments had initially been made by a private society and were later taken over by the State Government, but were discontinued pursuant to the authorities’ decision to conduct fresh recruitment from eligible candidates.

Since the recruitment process initiated by the advertisement dated 22 December 2025 had already concluded and the posts had been filled, the Court held that no effective relief could be granted concerning the legality or validity of the advertisement.

The subsequent completion of recruitment therefore rendered the challenge practically incapable of adjudication in the present proceedings, making the writ petition not maintainable at that stage.

The writ petition was accordingly dismissed at the motion stage itself as not maintainable.