Ernakulam: A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed senior actor Ranjini’s plea seeking a review of the Hema Committee Report before its release to the public by the state government. The report, prepared by a commission led by Justice K Hema, addresses issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry.
The High Court ruled that Ranjini’s plea was not admissible due to technical reasons. It also advised the actor to file a new appeal before a single bench. Earlier, the Kerala government had planned to release the report on Saturday but postponed the decision after Ranjini approached the court.
Ranjini was one among the women in the film industry who had given statement to the Justice Hema Committee. She had informed the government about her decision to move court seeking access to the report before making it public. In her plea, she claimed that she holds the right to know how the committee recorded her statement in the report.
“I’m not anyone’s mouthpiece. I have the legal right to know how my statement has been recorded on the report. I was the first one to give the statement to the committee on the problems faced by women in the film industry. Because I really want a tribunal for issues faced by women in the film industry. Let the court consider my petition on Monday. The release of the report is delayed for nearly five years. I think it may only take two weeks to decide on my petition. I filed the plea as a participant in the panel’s study. I had thought that women who had given statements before the committee received the report. But when I came to know that none of participants got access to the report, I decided to approach the court,” Ranjini told Manorama News.
On Thursday, the government announced that the report would be released after removing 63 pages from the 295-page report that could impact the privacy of the individuals. While ordering the release of the report, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday upheld the right to privacy. Pages were withheld following the court’s direction.
Last Tuesday, the Kerala High Court asked the government to release the report and dismissed a plea challenging the State Information Commission’s order directing the release of the Justice K Hema Committee report. While dismissing the plea, the court said that the petitioner, Sajimon Parayil, had “failed to demonstrate as to how his legal or fundamental rights were affected by the impugned order”. The court also noted that Kerala was the first state to initiate measures to alleviate grievances regarding harassment and discrimination raised by women working in cinema.
On July 24, the court stayed the release of the report for a week and the interim order was extended from time to time. The interim order was last extended on August 6. Parayil, a film producer, had challenged the Information Commission’s July 5 order. The Information Commissioner, in his order, however, had asked the SPIO not to disclose the details of paragraph 96 contained on page 49 and paragraphs 165 to 196 from pages 81 to 100.
The committee was formed after the 2017 actress assault case involving actor Dileep, to study issues of sexual harassment and gender inequality in Malayalam cinema. Even though the report was filed in 2019, the government is yet to release the details as it is suspected to contain sensitive information. The actress-survivor who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films was allegedly abducted and molested in her car for two hours by some of the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017, and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by some of the accused to blackmail the actress. There are 10 accused in the case. Dileep, the eighth accused in the case, was also arrested and sent to jail. He was released after the court granted him bail. The case is pending.