Supreme Court talks tough on whistleblowers law

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Centre for the delay in notifying the Whistle-blowers Protection Act as to when it will come into force and said the delay was causing a vacuum.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi asked the Attorney General to inform the court within a week as to when the law will be notified.

The CJI told the A-G, “Tell us how much time this statue will be ready. Now there is a vacuum Obviously we can’t tell the Parliament. Either you come up with a law or an administrative set up to protect the whistle blowers.

When the A-G sought three months time to seek instructions from the Government, the CJI observed “whistle blower is a phenomena and they will continue to do it. Take firm instructions. If you are unable to come up with any steps then we can pass orders.

The bench asked the A-G to spell out the government’s stand on January 13.

The Bench was hearing a public interest writ petition from Parivartan seeking protection to whistleblowers following the death of Satyendra Dubey.

Counsel Prashant Bhushan submitted that the Centre had enacted the whistleblower Act but had not notified it so far.

He said the CVC was merely forwarding whistleblower complaints to Chief Vigilance Officers who were middle level officers in the ministries, as they could not hold a proper inquiry against superior officials facing complaints of corruption or other irregularities. Further, CVOs held the post for three years and were sent back after this to work under the same officials whom they had probed.

The bench had earlier made it clear that the CVC should not send every whistleblower complaint to the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the concerned ministries/departments behaving like a post office. It wanted the government to evolve a mechanism for independent investigation of at least some percentage of cases. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 13.