Whistle blower is a person who works in an organization and has insider knowledge about a certain practice(s) of organization which are morally wrong, unethical, illegal, or harmful. He/she brings out this information in the public eye to stop this practice(s). This courageous step taken by whistleblower is often rooted in their moral values. Certain countries in world offer legal protection to whistleblowers by keeping their identity anonymous by enacting a statute, whereas in many countries whistleblowers take legal route, help from media or use social media to expose the organization.
There is no globally accepted definition for Whistleblower. According to The Economics Times, A whistleblower is a person, who could be an employee of a company, or a government agency, disclosing information to the public or some higher authority about any wrongdoing, which could be in the form of fraud, corruption, etc.
Some famous whistle blowing incidents
International Incidents
1. Edward Snowden
He was former National Security Agency Contractor for United States of America. In 2013 he exposed global surveillance program conducted by USA and its allies. The incident spiraled and Edward Snowden had to take asylum in Russia. His trail is pending in US courts.
2. Julian Assagne
Julian Assagne case famously known as WikiLeaks case, he
was the founder of website WikiLeaks where they used to publish secret
documents which covered a wide range of subjects, including government
surveillance, military operations, diplomatic communications, and corporate
practices. WikiLeaks had published many documents related to American war operations,
for which he was to be arrested by American agencies, he took political asylum
in Ecuadorian Embassy for 7 years in London before getting arrested in 2019.
3. Frances Haugen
She is an American Data Engineer and Scientist who used
to work with Facebook, she gave various internal reports of Facebook to The
Wall Street Journal in 2021 which
highlighted Facebook’s policy of Profits over Safety.
4. Karen Silkwood
In 1972, Karen Silkwood began working as a chemical
technician at the Kerr-McGee nuclear plant near Crescent, Oklahoma. Silkwood
joined the local Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union, and investigated
health and safety issues at the plant as a union activist. Silkwood discovered
numerous safety issues including exposure of workers to contamination, faulty
respiratory equipment, and more; she testified to the United States Atomic
Energy Commission in summer 1974 about her concerns.
Indian Incidents
1. Vijay Pandhare
He was the Chief Engineer in Maharashtra Water Resources
Department, in 2012 he wrote a letter to Chief Minister of state highlighting
financial irregularities in the irrigation project of the state. The charges
made by him resulted in resignation of Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
2. Gaurav Taneja
He is a famous YouTuber and commercial flight pilot, in
2020 he had highlighted unsafe flight landing practices adopted by AirAsia
Carrier to reduce fuel cost while risking lives of passengers. He was fired
from AirAsia and was sued by the Carrier.
3. Infosys Whistleblower case
A whistle blower had reported to US Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) that senior panel of the organization was fudging
financial numbers to gain short term profits from stock exchanges. The organization
got clean chit from US SEC but this incident forced Indian Government to work
on corporate Whistle Blowers rules .
4. Chanda Kochhar case
Arvind Gupta, a shareholder activist, exposed the alleged
loan fraud and quid pro quo between the ICICI bank’s then CEO Chanda Kochhar
and her family and the Videocon group. Kochhar stepped down following the
allegations and CBI has now opened a probe into the matter.
What Protection does Whistle Blowers have?
International Scenario
1. South Korea’s
Whistleblower Protection and Reward System
South Korea has enacted various statutes to not just
protect Whistleblowers but also reward such individuals. Acts such as Tax
Evasion Informant Reward Program, Foreign Financial Account Report Reward
Program, Act on the Protection of Public Interest Whistleblowers etc. Due to
these steps the individuals feels confidents when they report such incidents
which ultimately helps curb corruption.
2. European Union’s Whistleblower Directive
These guidelines were passed by EU in 2019, which directed
its 27 member nations to follow/incorporate these directives while dealing with
whistleblowing incidents and grant them legal protection even if the charges by
whistleblowers were proved wrong.
3. Canadian Whistleblower Laws
The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) launched whistleblower
reward law under the Offshore Tax Informant Program (OTIP) to track down tax
cheats. Two years later, the province of Ontario, Canada took a step further
and passed the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) whistleblower program to
protect investors from unfair and fraudulent practices. To date, both of
Canada’s whistleblower programs have been incredibly successful with
whistleblowers receiving over CAD $1 million in rewards for their disclosures
under the OTIP by 2019 and OSC whistleblowers receiving more than CAD $8.6
million since its establishment.
4. United Nations Whistleblower policy
The UN's Ethics Office is responsible for promoting and
maintaining high standards of ethical conduct within the organization. It
provides guidance on ethical issues, including those related to whistleblowing.
Indian Scenario
1. Law Commission in 2001 had recommended to make a
Whistleblower policy to protect whistle blower and curb corruption in country.
Later in 2004 when a whistleblower of NHAI corruption case was murdered, Supreme
Court directed Union Government to come up with law to protect whistleblower. The
government, in response, notified a resolution in 2004 named, ‘Public Interest
Disclosure and Protection of Informers Resolution (PIDPIR)’. This resolution
gave the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) the power to act on complaints from
whistleblowers.
2. In 2014 Government came up with Whistleblower Protection
Act, but there was severe lacuna in it i.e. this statute was available only to/against
public servants, corporate India was completely out of its ambit.
3. According to Companies Act 2013, section 177, every listed
company must have a Vigil Mechanism to address legitimate concern. Moreover,
this Act specifies that, mechanism must include sufficient safeguards to
prevent victimization of individuals utilizing the reporting system.
Additionally, there is a stipulation to disclose details of the mechanism on
the company's website. It is to be noted that this Vigil Mechanism clause is
applicable to only Listed Companies and not to privately held companies, thus a
significant amount of Industry is outside the ambit of any Whistleblower
protection mechanism.
4. 2015 SEBI Regulations (Prohibition of Insider Trading): Regulation 9 mandates listed businesses to develop a code of conduct to combat insider trading, as well as a policy on the code of practices and processes for fair disclosure of unpublished price-sensitive information. The policy often includes provisions for reporting concerns about unethical behavior.
