Supreme Court refuses to fix timeframe for probe under Whistleblower Act

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea for fixing a time period for CVC and other authorities to complete probe on a complaint filed under the Whistleblower Act but asked the Centre to look into the issue "expeditiously" if representation is made to it.

A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha asked the petitioner, an advocate, to approach the government on this issue and hoped that it will expeditiously look into the matter.

The petitioner N Rajaraman told court that some time frame should be fixed for completion of complaint filed as 2014 act is silent on the time frame.

The bench asked the petitioner whether there is any case in which the CVC took long time to complete the probe.

The petitioner, who also sought NIA probe in Sunanda Pushkar death case, submitted that he had made an elaborate email to the Home Secretary's office and prayed for probe by the agency but no action was taken on his plea.

"The main case of the petitioner is that the whistleblowers confidentiality and swift action on the complaints given by whistleblowers cannot be compromised on any account.

The CVC had conclusively failed to promise swift action and the failure to act by it and the Health Ministry has resulted in a complete media trial of the Shashi Tharoor case further complicated by the Delhi police which has no evidence to file a charge sheet even five months after the death," the petition said.