Abandonment of writ remedy bars challenge to the same grievance after unconditional withdrawal without liberty to refile.

A writ petition under Article 226 challenging the same grievance as an earlier PIL was held not maintainable because the earlier proceeding had been unconditionally withdrawn. The court applied the public policy principle reflected in Order XXIII Rule 1 CPC: where liberty to file afresh is not reserved, the same cause of action is treated as abandoned and cannot be re-agitated in a fresh writ petition. The petitioner's reliance on the general principle that any citizen may set criminal law in motion did not assist, because the relief sought was a mandamus against a constitutional regulatory authority, not merely the filing of a criminal complaint.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition was maintainable after the petitioner had unconditionally withdrawn an earlier PIL raising the same grievance.

Analysis: The relief sought in the writ petition substantially overlapped with the reliefs and allegations made in the earlier PIL. The earlier writ petition had been withdrawn unconditionally, and the legal principle governing such withdrawal is that the remedy under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, in respect of the same cause of action, is treated as abandoned unless liberty to file afresh is reserved. The bar operates on principles of public policy drawn from Order XXIII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the petitioner could not re-agitate the same grievance by filing a fresh writ petition. The reliance placed on the rule that any citizen may set criminal law in motion did not assist the petitioner, because the present proceeding sought a mandamus against a constitutional regulatory authority and not merely the institution of a complaint before a criminal court.

Conclusion: The writ petition was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed against the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: A writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, raising the same cause of action as an earlier writ petition that was unconditionally withdrawn, is barred from being re-agitated in the absence of liberty to file afresh.

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