Kerala HC slams state govt for ‘sitting on’ Hema panel report for 4 years

The Kerala High Court has slammed the state government for not taking any action based on the Justice K Hema Committee report, which has revealed systemic sexual abuse and exploitation of women in the Malayalam film industry.

The Justice K Hema Committee was set up in 2017, and the report was submitted in 2019. But a redacted version of it was released only on August 19 following a legal battle. The court on Tuesday (September 10) asked the state what it was doing for four years despite having the full report.

Full report to be handed over to SIT

The court, which had sought the full report, directed the state to hand it over to the special investigation team (SIT) probing the complaints of the women mentioned in the report. The court also said that it would not prevent the media from covering the incident.

“What are you doing to address the problems faced by women in society? Not just the film industry. The situation is bad and that too in a state like ours. We have a higher population of women in our state. This is not a minority issue for us,” the court reportedly said.

Court unhappy with state action

When the Division Bench of Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice CS Sudha asked what steps the government had taken based on the report, the advocate general said the SIT had been formed. However, the court was miffed that no concrete action had been taken despite the report being with the state for four years.

“We are primarily concerned with inaction of the state, including not registering FIRs... You have done nothing in four years except sit on the report,” the court reportedly said.

Based on the complaints received from the women after the report was published, the Kerala Police has so far registered FIRs against 11 people, including 10 from the Kerala film industry.

Hema Committee report fallout

Those accused in the cases include big names of the industry, including director Ranjith, and actor Siddique. Following their resignations from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), actor and president of the AMMA Mohanlal dissolved its entire executive committee.

Since then, many more allegations have come to the fore, with more and more women speaking up about their sexual abuse by powerful men in the industry, leading to a political tussle and a second wave of MeToo movement in Kerala.