Kerala High Court slams Left government for inaction on Hema Committee findings, asks it to give full report to SIT

The bench said women are more in number in Kerala and asked what the state was doing about the problems being faced by them in society.

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Left government in the state saying its inaction on the Justice Hema Committee report was "alarming." The court also asked the state to give the entire version of Hema Committee report to the special investigation team (SIT), which is probing into the allegations of sexual assaults.

The HC's direction to handover the entire version of the Justice Hema committee report on sexual assaults and other problems faced by women in the Malayalam film industry to the probe team, the SIT will be forced to initiate legal actions on all criminal offences revealed in the report.

The HC also strongly criticised the Kerala government for not taking any action on the report for more than four years. Even after a copy of the report was given to the state police chief in 2021 no further action was taken though prima facie offences of criminal nature were revealed in the report, the court flayed.

The bench comprising Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice C S Sudha asked the SIT to submit an action taken report. The court will subsequently go through the unredacted report and see whether the actions taken were justified. The court also asked the SIT to protect the privacy of the victims as well as the accused. In case the victims did not want to take further legal action, that should be considered, the court directed.

The court posted the case for October 3 for further proceedings.

The SIT was constituted by the Kerala government last month after some women in the Malayalm film industry openly revealed the sexual assault they face at the hands of actors. The revelations were made after a redacted version of the Hema committee report was made public as per the order of the State Information Commission last month after removing the pages that revealed the identity of the victims and accused. The government asked the SIT to probe into the sexual assaults openly revealed by victims.

However, according to police sources, since the HC has directed to handover the entire report and digital evidence to the SIT, the SIT would be legally bound to initiate at least a quick verification into all criminal offences revealed in the report.

The justification given by the government for sitting on the report for nearly five years was that many women in the Malayalam film industry turned up before the Hema committee report and gave statements on the sexual assaults they faced on the condition of protecting their privacy.

There were unconfirmed reports that the Hema committee report contained incriminating statements against many known persons in the film industry. The latest HC direction to handover the entire report to the SIT would be presenting anxious moments to Mollywood.