Now, Whistle-blowers' Bill to include ministers, military

Now ministers, intelligence agencies and armed forces will come under the ambit of a reworked legislation aimed at protecting whistle-blowers who report corruption and providing for severe punishment to those who expose their identity or try to victimise such people.

Accepting some key recommendations of a Parliamentary Committee which scrutinised the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, 2010, the government had reworked the legislation which was cleared by the Union Cabinet recently.

A major amendment cleared by the Cabinet is the inclusion of ministers, MPs, defence services, intelligence agencies, bank officials and PSUs under the ambit of the bill.

One of the recommendations of the Committee to include judiciary has been rejected as "it would be achieved through other legislations," sources said.

The legislation provides for setting up a regular mechanism to encourage persons to disclose information on corruption or wilful misuse of power by public servants to cause "demonstrable losses" to the government.

The bill also seeks to provide "adequate protection to persons reporting corruption or wilful misuse of discretion which causes demonstrable loss to the government or commission of a criminal offence by a public servant."

While the measure sets out the procedure to inquire into the disclosures and provides adequate safeguards against victimisation of the whistle blower, it also seeks to provide punishment for false or frivolous complaints.

It provides for punishment for revealing the identity, either negligently or with malafide intention, of the person who reports matters regarding corruption by a public servant.

The legislation was necessitated as it was felt that there were impediments in eliminating corruption in government due to "lack of adequate protection" to complainants, the statement said.

Government had earlier empowered the Central Vigilance Commission, through a resolution, to hand down stringent penalty to people revealing the identity of whistle-blowers.

But it was felt that a standalone legislation was needed to protect the whistle-blowers as the resolution empowering the CVC was not sufficient.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August, 2010 and is popularly called the whistle-blowers' protection bill.

In its report, the Parliamentary panel has suggested that the Ministry of Personnel should consider bringing the members of the Council of Ministers, the judiciary, including the higher judiciary and regulatory authorities within the ambit of the bill by making necessary amendments.

The Committee has also recommended that a foolproof mechanism be envisaged to ensure that the identity of the complainant is not compromised with.