Kerala High Court stays release of Hema Committee report

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has stayed the release of the Justice K Hema Committee report. This decision comes in response to the State Information Commission's order that directed the release of the report, which examines the issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry.

Justice P M Manoj stayed the release of the report till July 31 on a plea challenging the information commission's July 5 order, advocate Saiby Jose Kidangoor, who appeared for the petitioner, said.

The court also issued notice to the Kerala government, the State Information Commission (SIC) and some journalists seeking their stand on the plea by Sajimon Parayil, a film producer, who is aggrieved by the report.

The order came just hours before the report was scheduled to be made public.

The SIC had on July 5 directed the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) to reasonably disseminate the information in the report while ensuring that it does not compromise the privacy of individuals.

"While providing attested copies of the Justice K Hema Committee report, the SPIO should ensure that the materials do not lead to the identification of individuals referenced in the said report or compromise their privacy," it had said.

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.

It had also asked the SPIO to file a compliance report by July 26.

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 was suspected to contain sensitive information.

The actress-victim 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.

Input from PTI