Discussion about whistleblower protection bill.

1. Arathi Sivaram
Research Scholar
DCMS, University of Calicut
Dr. Satheesh E.K
Professor , DCMS
University of Calicut

2.  When a former or the existing employee of the
organization raise his voice against the unethical
activities being carried out within the organization
is called as whistle blowing and the person who
raise his voice is called as a whistle blower.
 The concept of whistle blowing has taken an
important stand in the contemporary world both in
public sector and in private sector and it become
one of the major pillar of corporate governance.

3. 1. Have evidence
2. Get concrete documentation: your
documentation needs to be on point. A rumor or
linking isn’t enough.
3. Gather records of the locations of incriminating
documents, files, names and contact details of
those involved, and laws you belief were
violated.
4. Keep the process confidential. The only person
you should talk to is a trusted attorney.
5. Disclose it with the trusted higher authorities
who can take action against.

4. Internal whistle-blowing External whistle-blowing
Internal whistleblowing is often
the first step for employees who
want to report something
unethical happening inside the
company. They may tell
management about the problem
in hopes that something will
change. By keeping the incident
internal only, the company avoids
bad publicity while it works to
rectify the situation.
When a company discourages
internal whistleblowing, or
retaliates against employees who
do so, they only hurt themselves.
The wronged employee may
notify the press, law enforcement
or other agencies and report the
problem. This is called the
external whistleblowing.
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7. Most often, the employees fear to raise a voice
against the illegal activity being carried out in the
organization because of following reasons:
 Threat to life
 Lost jobs and careers
 Lost friendships
 Resentment among workers
 Breach of trust and loyalty
Thus, in order to provide protection to the whistle
blowers, the Whistle Blower Protection Bill is
passed by Lok Sabha.
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8. Introduced in passed in
lok sabha lok sabha
May 11, 2015 May 13, 2015

9.  The Bill amends the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2014.
 The Act provides a mechanism for receiving and inquiring into public
interest disclosures against acts of corruption, willful misuse of power or
discretion, or criminal offenses by public servants.
 The Bill prohibits the reporting of a corruption-related disclosure if it
falls under any 10 categories of information.
 These categories include information related to (i) economic, scientific
interests and, the security of India; (ii) Cabinet proceedings, (iii)
intellectual property; (iv) that received in a fiduciary capacity, etc.
 The Act permits disclosures that are prohibited under the Official Secrets
Act (OSA), 1923. The Bill reverses this to disallow disclosures that are
covered by the OSA.
 Any public interest disclosure received by a Competent Authority will be
referred to a government authorised authority if it falls under any of the
above 10 prohibited categories. This authority will take a decision on the
matter, which will be binding.
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10. Whistleblowers
Protection Act, 2014
Whistleblowers Protection
(Amendment) Bill, 2015
Applicability of
the Official
Secrets
Act(OSA), 1923
Disclosures can be made
under the Act even if they
are prohibited under the
OSA.
[The OSA prevents
documenting or
communicating any
information, etc., if it
violates national security.]
Disclosures cannot be made
under the Bill, if it is
prohibited under the OSA.

11. Whistleblowers
Protection Act, 2014
Whistleblowers
Protection
(Amendment) Bill, 2015
Procedure to determine prohibited
disclosures
Not applicable, as the Act does not
prohibit any type of information
from being disclosed.
Once a disclosure is made, the
competent authority will refer it to
a government authorised authority.
This government authority will take
the final decision on whether the
disclosure is prohibited.
Issues that may not be revealed
during an inquiry into a whistle
blowing complaint
Once a whistleblowing complaint is
admitted, and is being inquired
into, no person is required to
provide any information if it falls
under five categories.
These categories include: i)
security of India, ii) foreign
relations; iii) public order and
morality; iv) contempt of court;
defamation, incitement to an
offence; and v) Cabinet
proceedings.
The five categories are replaced
with the above 10 categories of
information.

12. Whistleblowers
Protection Act, 2014
Whistleblowers
Protection (Amendment)
Bill, 2015
Disclosure of information Disclosures may be made on any act of
corruption, abuse of power or discretion, or
criminal offence by a public servant.
A disclosure is prohibited if it contains
information related to:
i) The sovereignty, strategic, scientific or
economic interests of India, or the
incitement of an offence;
ii) Records of deliberations of the Council
of Ministers;
iii) That which is forbidden to be
published by a court or if it may result in
contempt of court;
iv) A breach of privilege of legislatures;
v) Commercial confidence, trade secrets,
intellectual property (if it harms a third
party);
vi) That relayed in a fiduciary capacity;
vii) That received from a foreign
government;
viii) That which could endanger a person’s
safety etc.;
ix) That which would impede an
investigation etc.;
x) Personal matters or invasion of privacy.
However, if information related to (ii), (v),
(vi), and (x) is available under the Right to
Information Act, 2005, then it can be
disclosed under the Bill.
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13. https://counterview.org/

14. •The corruption or illegal practices not only affects the
economy of the country but also affects the human
resources.
•It deteriorates the protection of rights, ethics and hence
overall efficiency.
•According to survey conducted by Transparent International,
India is at 94th position in the Transparent International’s
Corruption Perception Index. More than 60% of the
employees have an experience of influencing others to get
the work done.
•The private companies are secretly involved with different
kinds of agencies and organisations without caring about the
economic growth but their growth.
•Ethical people who wish to reveal the malpractices of the
private bodies but they are unable to do so due to unrefined
and incomplete whistle blower protection act.
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15. •It gives the right of being equal and gives freedom
of information.
•It brings in justice and fairness.
•It also protects employee and consumer health.
•It serves as a check on seniors members.
•It makes the employees more comfortable and they
feel free and independent to raise their issues.
•It saves life hence this act is right to be
implemented.
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16. In the purview of this discussion there are questions
posed at large on a person’s morality and honesty
and the repercussions that follows the fate of the
whistle blowers. Hence, once again it is to be
asked that does it suffice to extend protection to
whistle blowers in public sector while denying the
same to those in private sector and leaving them in
a precarious state? Thus, there is indeed a need to
make the bill robust by extending it to the private
sector so that the whistle blowers in the private
sector have the same sense of security as is
possessed by the ones in the public sector.