The country will now have a powerful Act to encourage people to report corruption or misuse of power by public servants, including Ministers as the Rajya Sabha on Friday passed the Whistleblowers’ Protection Bill, which was cleared in the lok Sabha two years ago.
The Bill also seeks to provide “adequate protection to people disclosing information on corruption or misuse of discretion, leading to loss to the Government or disclose commission of a criminal offence by a public servant.” The Bill will also cover corrupt practices in the corporate sector and lack of protection to whistleblowers there. The Bill will also protect mediapersons.
While the Bill sets out the procedure for inquiring into the disclosures and provides adequate safeguards against victimisation of the whistleblower, it also seeks to provide punishment for false or frivolous complaints.
MoS for Personnel V Narayanasamy said the legislation would supplement the RTI Act in checking corruption in the country. He said he was unable to accommodate some of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and amendments suggested by some members, as the Bill would lapse. However, appropriate steps will be taken to address concerns of members within constitutional methods in ten days.
The Bill was passed by the lok Sabha in 2011 and was taken up by the Upper House in 2012 for consideration. However, it could not be passed because of the death of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. To a suggestion by BJP MP Chandan Mitra that steps should be taken to protect even those who had blown the whistle on corrupt practices in the past, Narayanasamy said the Government had already brought a resolution in 2004 under which the CVC was empowered to protect the whistleblowers.
Mitra also suggested that an award be instituted to felicitate whistleblowers. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien and some others members appreciated this suggestion and asked the Government to acknowledge “Mitra’s valid point for an award for whistleblowers”. Without naming senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had exposed a land scam involving a “very powerful” person in the State, Mitra pressed for the need to retrospectively safeguard whistleblowers.
“The Bill should have come two years ago. It is very unfortunate that it was delayed. However, my worry is that there are officers who have exposed mighty people in the past. Such whistleblowers are subjected to repeated transfers as punishment,” he said. In the Bill, the definition of ‘disclosure’ has also been amended to include willful misuse of power or willful misuse of discretion which leads to demonstrable loss to the Government or demonstrable gain to the public servant or any third party. The definition of competent authority to which a complaint can be made has also been expanded.
On Congress member Karan Singh’s suggestion that such an enactment should be there for Jammu and Kashmir also, Narayanasamy said they would write to the State about it. . The Government, however, parried a question by senior BJP member Prakash Javadekar on the failure to investigate cases related to cash-for-vote scam, saying the matter was sub-judice. On concerns expressed by Tapan Sen (CPI-M) about corrupt practices in the corporate sector and lack of protection to whistleblowers there, he said the Government was equally concerned about the issue.
Deputy leader of Opposition Ravi Shankar Prasad said though corruption cases in the Defence forces should not be tolerated, there should not be any loophole which an enemy of the country could use to compromise India’s security and weaken its fight against terrorism. D Raja of CPI supported by BJD’s Baishnab Parida suggested that the private sector be brought under the ambit of the Bill and no arbitrary exemption should be extended to any office including the Prime Minister’s Office. He said provisions should be made to provide compensation to any whistleblower facing victimisation.