Supreme Court seeks information on whistleblower protection; Asks CVC to submit status report

Two days ago, the Supreme Court directed the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to file a status report detailing the action taken with regard to complaints made by whistleblowers. The order was passed by the Division Bench of Justices TS Thakur and Vikramajit Sen in a writ petition filed by NGO Parivartan in 2004 (Parivartan & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors., W.P(C)No. 93/2004)..The petition was filed by Parivartan subsequent to the killing of Satyendra Dubey, an IIT Kanpur alumnus, who was working as an engineer in the Golden Quadrilateral Project of the National Highways Authorities of India when he was shot dead on November 27, 2003. It is believed that he was killed after he alerted the PMO regarding “looting of public money” and “poor implementation” of the project..Subsequent to the murder of Dubey, the writ petition was filed by Parivartan in which the Supreme Court issued a direction pursuant to which a notification on whistleblowers was issued by the Government. The said notification made the CVC the nodal agency for protecting whistleblowers and investigating their complaints..When the matter came up for hearing on July 30, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Parivartan, submitted that the system put in place pursuant to the Court’s order in 2004 has been ineffective and has failed..The Court, after hearing the counsels, directed the CVC to submit a status report giving details of actions taken till date on complaints by whistleblowers. The Court also sought a reply on whether the CVC has conducted an independent investigation on such complaints or whether they have simply forwarded such complaints to the vigilance officers of the concerned department/ ministry. The Court also sought a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation regarding the action taken on the allegations in the letters written by Dubey to the PMO..The matter will now be heard on November 12, 2013.