PROTECTION OF WHISTLEBLOWERS IN INDIA
AUTHOR – AHANA DAS, STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY, MUMBAI
BEST CITATION – AHANA DAS, PROTECTION OF WHISTLEBLOWERS IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (9) OF 2025, PG. 134-146, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
This article is published in the collaborated special issue of Amity Law School, Amity University, Mumbai and the Institute of Legal Education (ILE), titled “Emerging Trends in Law: Exploring Recent Developments and Reforms” (ISBN: 978-81-986345-1-1).
ABSTRACT
With the growth in developments in India, and India uplifting its status in front of various international standards, some factors pulling India backward. Some of them being corruption, dishonesty and fraud that occurs within governments, companies and various institutions. These malpractices lead to the development or emergence of the Whistleblowers who blows the whistle to alert the appropriate authorities about it.
Whistleblowing is an act that involves revealing the truth about such misconduct. It has emerged as a vital tool in fostering transparency, accountability, integrity within organisations and maintaining ethical governance both domestically and internationally. Whistleblowers can be termed as one of the many pillars of a functioning country. They come forward by disclosing information on any wrongdoing, misconduct, corruption or abuse of power which is happening within the organization be it public or private. A whistleblower can be an employee of the organization, a contractor, a supplier or ever a mere observer. In order for a whistleblower to have the courage to speak the truth they need to be protected and safeguarded by the government.
In India the need to protect whistleblowers has been increasingly recognized especially after occurrences of various instances where these whistleblowers faced threats, harassment or even death for whistleblowing these malpractices. Despite their pivotal role, the legal provisions for protecting them is significantly insufficient and severely underdeveloped in India. We have a specific act for their protection. It is called The Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2014. This act was enacted to receive complaints by whistleblowers disclosing corruption, unlawful practices or abuse of power by government officials. Even though this act is also supposed to provide protection to the whistleblowers from various threats that the whistleblowers face for the bravery shown by them but it suffers severe shortcomings.
In practice, whistleblowers in India face numerous challenges. There have been several cases where the whistleblowers faced intimidations, life threats, threat to affect their family members and in some unfortunate cases even death. Sometimes they also face indirect intimidations from their departments like transfers, disciplinary actions, suspensions or worse – physical harm and assassination. The absence of a strong framework for protection makes the whistleblowers vulnerable in their own society or surroundings. This also discourages people from coming forward and taking the initiative to disclose or speak up about the malpractices or misconduct. The media and non – government organizations have contributed to bringing the situation of whistleblowers in front of public eyes and gave an indirect fprce to the Indian Judiciary to take legislative actions.
KEY WORDS :- Whistle blowers, Corruption, Malpractice, Competent Authorities, Role of Judiciary, Role of media, The Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2014.