Set time frame for new Whistleblower law: Supreme Court to Govt

NEW DELHI: Whistleblowers are a reality and can’t be wished away, the Supreme Court said, as it asked the government to either have a statutory mechanism in place to protect them or beef up the existing administrative system to ensure their protection while it ushered in a regime change.

"Give us a time frame within which the administrative setup will be replaced by the statutory set-up. The time frame within which it will become a reality, made effective. You can’t have a vacuum,” chief justice TS Thakur told attorney general Mukul Rohatgi on Wednesday.

The AG sought time from the court for greater clarity on the issue and held out the assurance that a law was in the offing. Framing of rules would take time, Rohatgi told the court. The AG agreed to come back to court within a week with the government view on the law.