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Journalism of Courage
A Delhi-based lawyer, Rakesh Upadhyay, has filed a PIL urging the Supreme Court to deal with the legal issues raised by the tragic fate of IIT Kanpur graduate and whistleblower Satyendra Dubey who was killed after his identity was leaked out by the Government despite his request to keep it confidential.
The Supreme Court registry has listed the PIL for January 5 but the petitioner says he may orally request the court to hear it on an earlier date.
Annexing The Sunday Express report of November 30 which first exposed Dubey’s letter, the petition urges the court to direct the Centre to evolve a system to ensure protection to anybody who complains to the Government against corruption.
It says the proposed system could be based on the Whistle Blower Act recommended by the Constitution Review Commission in 2002.
In a tacit reference to Dubey’s death, the petition said that the name of the person who makes a complaint against the corrupt system should be ‘‘kept secret’’ when the whistle blower makes such a request.PIL enters SC to protect Dubeys
Finding fault with the Prime Minister’s Office for not keeping Dubey’s name secret, the petition claims that the Government should be directed to appoint a judicial inquiry against ‘‘persons involved in not following secrecy’’ as requested by the deceased whistleblower.
Besides, it requested that the case relating to Dubey’s murder be transferred from Bihar police to the CBI. Saying that Dubey, an IIT graduate working on the national highway project in Bihar, was ‘‘an asset to the nation,’’ the PIL argued that even in the absence of a Whistle Blower Act in India, the Government had ‘‘an absolute oblgation to keep the name of such person secret for the protection of his fundamental right to life.’’
