Writ petition closed with liberty to reopen subject to outcomes of pending appeals.

The petitioners, serving or formerly serving as Joint Directors of Agriculture, sought to quash G.O.Ms. No. 257 dated 25 November 2021 and obtain revised pay fixation at Rs. 52,090, with consequential monetary and retirement benefits, relying on an additional fitment table.

At the hearing, petitioners’ counsel submitted that the matter could be decided after W.A. No. 2498 of 2024 was disposed of; the State did not seriously dispute that submission.

1. Whether the writ petition should remain pending until the disposal of W.A. No. 2498 of 2024.

2. Whether the writ petition could be closed while preserving the petitioners’ liberty to reopen it in light of the outcomes of W.A. No. 2498 of 2024 and W.A. (MD) No. 1880 of 2024.

The Court applied no substantive pay-fixation rule or cited precedent.

It exercised its writ jurisdiction under Article 226, under which it could manage the proceeding and close it while expressly preserving liberty to seek reopening.

Because the petitioners accepted that the decision could await the outcome of W.A. No. 2498 of 2024, and the State did not seriously contest that position, the Court considered that keeping this writ petition pending would serve no purpose.

It therefore closed the petition but preserved the petitioners’ liberty to reopen it subject to the outcomes of W.A. No. 2498 of 2024 and W.A. (MD) No. 1880 of 2024.

No costs were awarded.

The Court did not decide the merits of the pay-fixation claim.