CVC seeks powers to stop victimisation of whistleblowers

Ashwini Shrivastava
New Delhi, July 25 (PTI) The Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC) in India is seeking greater powers to ensure that
individuals who expose corruption by government officials and
departments are not victimised, hounded or harassed by the
bureaucracy.
The Commission says it needs "enforcement powers" to
protect whistleblowers from harassment. The CVC is a
designated authority to receive complaints and to ensure
adequate protection to the whistleblowers under the Public
Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers Resolution
(PIDPI).
"One of the limitations faced by the Commission under the
resolution is that the Commission has not been provided with
enforcement powers nor has it been made mandatory for the
administrative authorities to comply with CVC's directives to
protect whistleblowers from harassment," Chief Vigilance
Commissioner Pratyush Sinha told PTI in an interview.
"These limitations have constrained the effectiveness of
the Whistleblower Resolution," he said.
Not surprisingly, whistleblowers attract the ire of the
departments they expose. Sinha said that in the past the CVC
had intervened in several cases to prevent "inconvenient
transfer, denial of promotion or other forms of harassment to
whistleblowers".
On being asked about the CVC's effectiveness in curbing
corruption, he said, "The Central Vigilance Commission is only
a recommendatory body which advises suitable disciplinary
action against government officials. It is for the
administrative authority to impose punishment effectively and
promptly."
The CVC's concern for the well being of whistleblowers
stems from the fact that many whistleblowers have in the
recent past been harassed for exposing corruption. Some were
even killed, the latest being Gujarat-based Right to
Information (RTI) activist, Amit Jethwa, who had filed a PIL
against illegal mining in Gir forest.
Jethwa was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen opposite
Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad, in west Indian state of
Gujarat on July 20. Amit's father had allegedly blamed
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Jundagadh Dinu Solanki for
his son's killing.
Also killed in Maharashtra, another west Indian state, a
few months ago were RTI activists Satish Shetty and Datta
Patil, who had accused politicians and bureaucrats of
involvement in land scams and corruption.

An ongoing case being heard by the Punjab and Haryana
high court relates to the police harassment of Samdeep Mohan
Varghese, allegedly at the behest of a private company he had
accused of illegal practices.
Sinha said that the "CVC is the authority to handle
whistleblowers' complaints and provide protection to them.
There is a special cell in the Commission to deal with such
cases of harassment". But no enforcement powers.
Former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti however blames
the CVC's failure to protect whistleblowers on the
"dysfunctional" attitude of senior officers of the CVC.
In a recent letter to United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Justice Lahoti remarked that every
whistleblower who risked his life to approach the CVC had
"come to grief", even as the culprits roamed free.
But RTI activist and Magsaysay Awardee Arvind Kerjriwal
agrees with Sinha on the need to arm the Central Vigilance
Commission with more powers.
"The Commission needs to freed from government's control
and turned into an independent body with all judicial and
statutory powers to investigate and prosecute the guilty,"
Kejriwal said. PTI AKV
MRD