Whistleblower Murders in India
Important Observations of the Supreme Court and Murders of Whistleblowers.
In Indirect Tax Practitioners’ Association v R.K.Jain the Supreme Court gave a precise meaning to the word whistleblower. “A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about the wrongdoing occurring in an organisation or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organisation. The revealed misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organisation) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).”
In Manoj H Mishra vs Union Of India & Ors. The SC said,
“One of the basic requirements of a person being accepted as a “whistle blower” is that his primary motive for the activity should be in furtherance of public good. In other words, the activity has to be undertaken in public interest, exposing illegal activities of a public organization or authority. Every informer cannot automatically be said to be a bonafide “whistle blower”. A “whistle blower” would be a person who possesses the qualities of a crusader.”
In August 2013, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Arjan Kumar Sikri ruled that identity of whistleblower can never be revealed to the accused facing prosecution under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. To quote, “Situations are many where certain persons do not want to disclose the identity as well as the information/complaint passed on by them to the ACB. If the names of the persons, as well as the copy of the complaint sent by them are disclosed, that may cause embarrassment to them and sometimes threat to their lives.”
Keeping these cases in mind there are two murders which have gone a long way in framing the Whistle Blowers Protection
In Indirect Tax Practitioners’ Association v R.K.Jain the Supreme Court gave a precise meaning to the word whistleblower. “A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about the wrongdoing occurring in an organisation or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organisation. The revealed misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organisation) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).”
In Manoj H Mishra vs Union Of India & Ors. The SC said,
“One of the basic requirements of a person being accepted as a “whistle blower” is that his primary motive for the activity should be in furtherance of public good. In other words, the activity has to be undertaken in public interest, exposing illegal activities of a public organization or authority. Every informer cannot automatically be said to be a bonafide “whistle blower”. A “whistle blower” would be a person who possesses the qualities of a crusader.”
In August 2013, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Arjan Kumar Sikri ruled that identity of whistleblower can never be revealed to the accused facing prosecution under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. To quote, “Situations are many where certain persons do not want to disclose the identity as well as the information/complaint passed on by them to the ACB. If the names of the persons, as well as the copy of the complaint sent by them are disclosed, that may cause embarrassment to them and sometimes threat to their lives.”
Keeping these cases in mind there are two murders which have gone a long way in framing the Whistle Blowers Protection
References: (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_protection_in_India (2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Dubey#Murder_and_aftermath (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanmughan_Manjunath (4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Kumar (5) http://www.manupatrafast.in