Chargesheets,censures,departmental inquiries,suspensions. That wasnt what these government employees some very senior,others relatively junior imagined when they reported corruption in their departments using the secrecy route ensured by the 2004 whistleblowers resolution. But a list of cases compiled by The Indian Express shows this has been the fate of whistleblowers belonging to departments as diverse as the Railways,PSU banks,Ministry of Defence and Department of Telecommunications they have been forced to go to court,challenging their victimisation. A scrutiny of their court records and correspondence with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC),which is meant to register and follow up all complaints of whistleblowers,makes it evident why the 2004 resolution needs to be replaced with a formal legislation on protection of whistleblowers. Department of Telecommunications Divisional Engineer Azam Siddiqui filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court after the BSNL challenged the reprieve he got from the Central Administrative Tribunal. All my troubles and insecurities began after I exposed a Rs 100-crore scam at the BSNL exchange in Allahabad. Since then,I have been chargesheeted while juniors are being promoted, he said. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan,who is appearing in court on behalf of four such whistleblowers,said the Supreme Courts handling of the whistleblowers plea could prove to be a benchmark. I have also been interacting with the CVC on this issue. It is very clear to me that the whistleblowers resolution has failed to achieve the objective with which it was drafted. In some cases,the identity of the whistleblower has ben disclosed to the CVO of the department, he claimed. In two recent instances,the CVC made strange written requests to departments. When whistleblowers made the CVC and the departments concerned respondents in the case,the CVC requested them to ask their lawyers to defend them as well. One such case is that of Abhijit Ghosh,a General Manager with the Central Bank of India who has been suspended for almost a year now and was served three chargesheets earlier. Incidentally,Ghosh himself did a five-year stint in the CVC. In 2008,he filed a complaint under the whistleblowers resolution against the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank. While no action has been taken on the complaint,the CVC requested the banks counsel to appear on behalf of them in the ongoing hearings at the Delhi High Court. A similar petition has been filed by Sudhir Chopra,a Joint Director in Defence Estates,who began his complaint spree on illegal land requisitioning in 2000. When the whistleblowers resolution was given to the CVC,he converted his complaint to that of a whistleblower. While the CAT gave him relief by quashing a penalty order served on him,he has appealed to the Delhi High Court to quash the departmental inquiry as well. There is no question about it. Instead of my whistleblowing act being applauded,I feel victimized. My juniors are being promoted while I am running to courts to get the inquiry order vacated, Chopra said. S K Nagarwal,a Civil Engineer in the Railways who blew the whistle on corruption in the Eklakhi-Balurghat line,alleges that despite CBI cases being lodged after his complaints,copies of his complaint to the CVC were distributed to the contractors involved. First,my identity was compromised. And after repeated transfers,I was served chargesheets with frivolous allegations. The inquiries are still on. In my view,the CVC,which is meant to protect whistleblowers,is doing just the opposite, Nagarwal said.
