Sealed cover promotion can be withheld when a charge-sheet follows suspension and disciplinary proceedings remain pending.

A government servant whose case was correctly placed in a sealed cover at the DPC stage because he was under suspension could not claim opening of the cover or promotion merely on revocation of suspension. The Office Memorandum of 14 September 1992 applied because a later charge-sheet and pending disciplinary proceedings triggered the para 7 embargo, requiring the employee to be treated as if the case remained in sealed cover until complete exoneration. The revocation of suspension was not a clean chit, and the Tribunal's contrary direction was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the respondent was entitled to opening of the sealed cover and promotion on revocation of suspension, notwithstanding the subsequent issuance of charge-sheet and pendency of disciplinary proceedings.

Analysis: The respondent's case was correctly placed in a sealed cover when the DPC met because he was under suspension, attracting para 2 of the Office Memorandum dated 14 September 1992. Para 7 of the same Office Memorandum provides that where any circumstance mentioned in para 2 arises before actual promotion, the government servant is to be treated as if the case had been kept in sealed cover and is not to be promoted until completely exonerated. The revocation of suspension did not amount to a clean chit, and the subsequent issuance of charge-sheet brought the case squarely within the embargo under the Office Memorandum. The decision relied upon by the Tribunal concerned materially different facts, where no such circumstance existed on the relevant date.

Conclusion: The respondent was not entitled to opening of the sealed cover or promotion until complete exoneration, and the Tribunal's direction to the contrary was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a government servant's case is rightly kept in a sealed cover at the DPC stage because he is under suspension, the employer may lawfully withhold opening of the cover and deny promotion if a charge-sheet is issued before actual promotion and disciplinary proceedings are pending, unless the employee is completely exonerated.

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