VIGILANCE MANUAL VOLUME III - AP Online

568 DECISION - 267
departmental proceedings are pending against him. As per the sealed
cover procedure an employee is to be considered by the Departmental
Promotion Committee along with others for promotion,
notwithstanding the pendency of the disciplinary proceedings and if
he gets selected, his result will be kept in a sealed cover until the
conclusion of those proceedings.
The Tribunal considered the contention of the applicants that
the sealed cover procedure contemplated by the instructions is void
and inoperative as it runs counter to rule 11(ii) of the Central Civil
Services (CCA) Rules, 1965. It is urged on behalf of the applicants
that withholding of promotion having been treated as penalty under
rule 11(ii), the executive instructions cannot authorise withholding of
promotion pending departmental inquiry and to the extent the
instructions authorise the same on certain conditions, they are invalid
as being contrary to the statutory rules. The Tribunal observed that
it is by now well established that the executive instructions issued by
the Government can fill up the gaps in the statutory rules framed
under Art. 309 of Constitution, though any such instructions can
only supplement and cannot run counter to the same. The statutory
rules only provide that withholding of promotion can be resorted to
by way of punishment. The rules do not say that the withholding of
promotion cannot be resorted to for other valid reasons and they are
silent. It is to provide for such a contingency, the sealed cover
procedure has been thought of and executive instructions had been
issued in that regard. On a due consideration of the matter, the
Tribunal took the view that it is open to the Government to adopt the
sealed cover procedure provided the interest of the official concerned
is sufficiently and fully safeguarded in the event of his being ultimately
exonerated in the departmental proceedings. In issuing the
instructions embodying the sealed cover procedure, the provisions
of the Central Civil Services (CCA) Rules, 1965 are not violated in
any sense. There is no conflict between rule 11(ii) and the instructions.
As pointed out by the Supreme Court in High Court of Calcutta vs.