Redeveloping Whistleblowing Policy in India: A Fight for Better Corporate Governance

Anuja Saraswat and Sukrati Gupta
Svkm’s NMIMS Kirit P. Mehta School of Law, Mumbai, India

Volume III, Issue IV, 2020

In recent years, corporate industry in India has undergone certain radical changes that require huge amounts of capital investments. The company’s uncertainty augmented with the Public Private Partnership model implemented in India, where stakeholders’ as well as equity holders’ interests need to be addressed. The growing uncertainty has also resulted from the chain of corporate failures such as Satyam, Sahara, King Fisher, Enron, Xerox, etc. that have rattled economies around the world, causing stockholders to lose trust in their funds’ managers as well as among overseas investors. India, as an increasing economy, needs enormous foreign investment to finance big projects, as the Indian government looks at MNCs to provide resources and technological know-how. This calls for a Corporate Governance review with specific regard to the whistle blowing process in order to keep a check on such widespread fraudulent activities. It is therefore important that companies should ensure that their policies and procedures on human resources ensure that whistleblowing conduct is viewed in a favorable light and that the whistleblower is considered a savior rather than a traitor. The present study aims to highlight the value of the principles of corporate governance concerning whistle blowing process and other legislation for the company’s successful functioning as well as systemic changes in the contemporary law to create conditions conducive to its existence in companies.