On the Supreme Court’s prodding, the Government has formally empowered the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to act on the complaints of whistleblowers and give protection to them. Though this is only an interim arrangement based on a notification issued by the Personnel Ministry on April 21, India has joined the select band of four democracies protecting whistleblowers: US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the ongoing elections, the Government was forced to take this major policy decision because of the judicial activism displayed by a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice P V Reddy. Solicitor General Kirit Raval today reported the notification to the bench saying, ‘‘If the machinery put in place works well, Satyendra Dubey’s death will not be in vain.’’ The notification, too, refers to Dubey’s death as it was issued at the instance of the court on the two PILs that were filed following the expose by The Indian Express of the murder of the IIT graduate for complaining to to the Prime Minister about corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral national highway project. Interestingly, the Government issued the notification just 16 days after Justice Ruma Pal proposed on April 5 that a whistleblower machinery be created through an executive order pending the enactment of a suitable legislation. On April 12, Raval obtained the court’s approval for the scheme he had devised of authorising the CVC to protect whistleblowers and act on their complaints. Here’s a ready reckoner of the whistle-blower machinery that has come into force: • What difference does it make? What happened when Dubey blew the whistle:
