SC seeks Centre's reply on plea seeking law on whistleblowers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to appraise it in a week, about the time frame within which it can make the law to protect whistleblowers or make functional the administrative set-up for the purpose.

“You (Attorney General) please take a firm instruction on the statutory arrangement or about the administrative set-up”, a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi said.

During the hearing, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, urged that the matter be kept for hearing after three months, by when either the law will be passed or the administrative setup will be put in place.

“The bench has now fixed the 2004 PIL filed by NGO Parivartan for hearing on January 13 for getting the response from the Centre on the issue. Till the time there is no law. You (Centre) create a mechanism for dealing with complaints of whistleblowers and their safety”, the court said.

Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said that the whistleblowers, exposing corruption in society, needed to be protected. Earlier, the Centre had said that a legislation on the subject was in the offing.

PTI