A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul allowed the Union government to go ahead with Sharma's promotion.
It, however, said his promotion would be subject to the court's final order in the Gujarat government main writ petition against the Central Administrative Tribunal's order.
"We feel that it would be appropriate to dispose of this application (filed by Centre) with the directing that any order that may be passed with regard to the empanelment or promotion would, obviously, have to be in accordance with the law and would be subject to the final orders that may be passed in this writ petition. With these directions this application stands disposed of," said the bench and slated the matter for next hearing on February 11, 2013.
The Centre's plea was filed in a pending appeal of the Gujarat government against the CAT's order, which had raised Sharma's grading in the ACR paving the way for his promotion.
The CAT earlier had set aside a departmental enquiry against the 1976-batch IPS officer, holding that he was the victim of "arbitrary" treatment at the hands of the state government.
The Tribunal had also restored Sharma's grading in his ACRs from "very good" to "outstanding."