Withdrawal of a writ petition amounts to abandonment of cause, and the court would normally refuse to entertain the same cause again. Exceptions apply in specific circumstances.

Writ petitioner (respondent No. 1 herein) claiming to man the post of a Watchman, sought the indulgence of the writ Court buy medium of SWP No. 419/2003 to command the State and its functionaries to continue him on the said post and to release salary in his favour for the period commencing from April, 2001 and onwards on the strength of the order of appointment which reads:

"In pursuance of the D.P.C. decision and in light of SRO 126 Sh. Maqbool Ahmad Khan (T.D.C. Pass) S/o Khadim Hussain Khan R/o Niloosa Pashwari Tehsil Uri Dist. Baramulla is temporarily appointed in the grade of Rs. 2550-3200 as Watchman and is posted Inspectorate Sopore against available post. He will however allowed to join only after producing of Police verification/character certificate."

2. Writ petition came up consideration before the Court on 24-03-2003 and the following order was passed which may be noticed:

"Notice. Notice in the CMP also. On the assumption that the order of appointment relied upon by the petitioner is genuine one, is provided that his legitimately earned wages shall be released subject to objections of other side. Needless to say that the direction aforementioned shall not work as an impediment for the respondents to investigate/examine the validity of the order of appointment and shall be free to deal with the matter, if order of appointment is found invalid or unsustainable in law. Be listed after service is complete.

In response to the notice reply was filed by the opposite part (appellants herein) stating therein reference made to the decision of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC for short) relates to an arrangement of the Assistant Controllers and no power was ever conferred upon the Deputy Controller by the DPC to make the appointment on the post of Watchman. It was further averred that the Deputy Controller has no competence to make appointment on the post ion question. In the face of such stand the petitioner in his wisdom chose to withdraw the writ petition, consequently, dismissed as withdrawn on 06-02-2004.

3. Here begins another phase of litigation through subsequent writ petition filed in quick succession accompanied by a motion for interim relief which was granted on 03-03-2004 having the effect of allowing the petitioner to continue and entitling him to the salary attached to the post. It is this direction which is impugned by medium of this Letters Patent Appeal but amazingly the appellants counsel opted for oblivion. Same is true of the counsel for the respondent No. 1 leaving no option for us but to decide the matter without assistance of the learned counsel for the parties. It needs a mention here that in the withdrawal application the writ petitioner had sought liberty to challenge the order of disengagement but no such relief is claimed as is evidence by the prayer made in the second writ petition which runs as under:--

"(a) by issuance of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, respondents be directed:

(i) to treat the petitioner to be in continuous service and to pay him the salary and other benefits with effect from 05/2001 and onwards.

(ii) They be further directed not to disengage or discontinue the petitioner from service on any ground whatsoever, but to allow him to continue in service. They be also directed to prepare his service record and given him benefit of seniority etc. accordingly."

To mark the difference, if any, between the reliefs sought in two petitions it may be pertinent to reproduce the prayer clause of the earlier writ petition also:

"(I) A writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to pay the outstanding salary of the petitioner from 4/2001 onwards without any interruption and be allowed to continue.

(II) By issuance of writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction respondents be directed to continue the petitioner in service against them post of Watchman and the other service benefits be paid to him without any impediment or