While bar owners, workers and consumers were delighted, there was no joy for the excise department officials.

The division bench verdict of the Kerala High Court staying the closure of bars on Friday marked the end of a 24-hour long rollercoaster ride for everyone associated with bars in the district.

While bar owners, workers and consumers were delighted, there was no joy for the excise department officials.

By the time bar owners secured the stay order by Friday afternoon, the excise department had sealed off 75 of the 180 bars that were still operating in the district after 105 were closed down in April owing to quality issues.

This meant that department officials had to revisit bars to unseal them to honour the verdict. Some bar owners anxiously waited for the arrival of excise officials while some others were left ruing the fact that they had left majority of their staff to go home after the single bench ordered the closure of bars on Thursday.

'With two consecutive dry days, bars are only set to resume normal functioning only on Monday.

Workers were a delighted lot with some celebrating the ‘victory’ with sweets and crackers.

“Till this morning I had no idea what to do and where to go. The court has definitely given us a lifeline,” said Vijayan, barman at a city hotel.