Silent Heroes: Whistleblowers Across Borders and Legal Shields Unveiled

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.