JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a learned Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowing the Writ Petition filed by the respondents. Prayer in the writ petition was to quash the detention order dated 10.5.1993. Stand of the writ petitioners before the High Court was that a petition for preventing the respondents in the writ petition from enforcing the said order was disposed of by order dated 19.7.2002 in Criminal Writ Petition No.1408 of 1999. The respondents in the writ petition opposed the same taking the stand that in some other cases the High Court had taken the view that once the order had become infructuous by lapse of time, a different yardstick should not have been applied. In the case at hand, the writ petition was, therefore, allowed with the following observations:

“In view of the above, this petition is allowed and the respondents are restrained from enforcing order dated 10.5.1993. They will however be at liberty to pass any fresh order, if so required, and take appropriate action thereafter in accordance with law.”

3. Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the judgment of the