The Kerala High Court is set to constitute a special bench with a woman judge to hear the cases related to the Justice Hema Committee report. A bench of justices A Muhamed Mustaque and S Manu, on Thursday, September 5, were hearing an appeal filed by producer Sajimon Parayil challenging a single judge order that allowed for the release of the report.
The producer had earlier filed a writ petition contending that the release of the report will affect the privacy of those who shared crucial information before the committee. He also argued that the disclosure was “fundamentally against public interest and violates the right to privacy” of several persons in the industry. On July 24, a single judge bench of Justice PM Manoj stayed the release of the report, hours before its release.
However, on August 13, the case came up before Justice VG Arun, who dismissed the petition ruling that Sajimon had no locus standi to file the petition as his legal or fundamental rights were not affected. The judge ordered the release of the report with limited redactions.
Earlier this year, on July 6, the State Information Commission (SIC) passed an order, directing the Kerala government to issue the Hema Committee report before July 25. The SIC had specified that the report should only be issued after taking down information pertaining to the privacy of individuals, as prohibited under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The report, which is believed to have crucial findings about systemic harassment in the Malayalam film industry, was initially scheduled to be released by 4 pm on July 24, but was released on August 13.
The version now available to the public has been heavily redacted to protect the privacy of those who deposed, with all identifiers, including the names of the perpetrators, removed. The report, however, has since emboldened many women in the industry to publicly share their traumatic experiences, triggering another #MeToo wave in Kerala.
The Committee, headed by former Justice K Hema, was formed in the aftermath of the sexual assault of a female actor in a moving car in Kochi in 2017. Though an inquiry report was submitted by the Committee to the Kerala government in 2018, it remained unpublished.