JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

CMP-T No. 1064 of 2023

For the reasons assigned, this application is allowed.

CWPOA No. 5331 of 2019

2. With the consent of learned Counsel for the parties, the case was taken up for consideration today itself.

3. Brief facts necessary for the adjudication of the present petition are as under:-

The petitioner was appointed as a Junior Engineer in the I&PH Department in February 1981. FIR No. 1/2001 was registered on 10.04.2001, under Sections 420 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian penal code against one Sh. S.K. Vats and others including the petitioner. On account of the lodging of this FIR, when the Departmental Promotion Committee met for considering eligible candidates for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer from the post of Junior Engineer on 28 September 2013, the case of the petitioner was kept in sealed cover.

4. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that as on the date when the Departmental Promotion Committee met, neither there was any departmental enquiry pending against the petitioner, nor charges stood framed against him in the criminal case, therefore, the act of the respondent- department of following the sealed cover procedure