By Our legal Correspondent
Kochi : The Kerala High Court has constituted a Special Bench on Sept 05 consisting of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and C S Sudha for hearing Public Interest litigations (PIL) filed following the publication of the Hema Committee report on the issued faced by women working in the Malayalam film industry.
The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice S Manu referred to the Special Bench an appeal filed by Sajimon Parayil, a producer , against a single judge’s order upholding the State Information Commission’s directive to release the Hema committee report redactions. The Bench had earlier directed the State government to produce the entire report before the court when a PIL came up for seeking a directive to the State government to initiate criminal proceedings against those who had committed sexual exploitation and harassment of women in the film industry as found by the committee.
The Bench had observed that if any cognizable was disclosed in the report, whether a criminal action was necessary or not was to be decided by the court. The court had said that the State government was unable to proceed in this matter ‘since no one had come forward with a complaint. But the fact remains that if the report disclosed sexual exploitations of women, how to protect these vulnerable women and what action can be taken against the perpetrators is something that the court needs to address, the Bench added.
Another PIL seeking a probe by the CBI into revelations of sexual harassment reportedly mentioned in the report is pending before the court. The petition filed by Jannath and another person sought a directive to the State government to enact a law for the protection of women in cinema based on the recommendations of the committee report.
