Service Law- Office Memorandum (‘OM’) dated 14th September, 1992 dealing with the ‘Promotion of Government servants against whom disciplinary/court proceedings are pending or whose conduct is under investigation- Whether by the mere grant of prosecution sanction, it could be said that the prosecution for a criminal charge is pending against the respondent Government Servant and whether grant of sanction for prosecution could be a valid ground for putting the DPC recommendations in a sealed cover”? The disciplinary/criminal proceedings can be said to be initiated against the employee only when a charge memo is issued to the employee in a disciplinary proceeding or a charge-sheet for a criminal prosecution is filed in the competent Court. The sealed cover procedure is to be resorted to only after issuance of the charge-memo/charge-sheet is issued. The pendency of investigation and grant of prosecution sanction will not be sufficient to enable the authorities to adopt the sealed cover procedure. (Para 24)