The Hema Committee report, containing depositions of women in Malayalam cinema about the issues they face in the industry, will not be released on Saturday, August 17, as earlier announced. The release has been deferred after actor Ranjini, who had deposed before the Committee, approached the High Court on Friday, challenging its earlier order to release the report.
Ranjini said in her petition that she was not against the publication of the report but she expected to be informed about the content that would be published. She had deposed before the Committee under the promise of confidentiality, she said. Her plea will be heard on Monday, August 19.
On Saturday, Roshipal of the Reporter TV, who had filed an RTI for the Hema Committee report and was promised a copy, approached the State Information Commission after the publication was deferred. After this the SIC has sought an explanation from the government. Minister of Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian however claimed that it was the State Public Information Officer who should release the report and that the government had no role in it.
The release of the report was earlier postponed when film producer Sajimon Parayil had approached the court against its publication, challenging the State Information Commission’s order to release it. The Commission had ordered in July that the report should be released after withholding information related to the privacy of individuals, as prohibited by the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
On August 13, the court dismissed Sajimon’s petition, upholding the decision of the State Information Commission, and ordering the release of the report within a week. The Department of Culture was expected to release copies of the report with the necessary redactions on Saturday, to those who filed RTI applications for it. However, the government postponed the release, citing Ranjini’s petition to the High Court.
Women's commission chairperson P Satheedevi reacted to the decision, saying that the report should be released. Earlier, film organisations in Malayalam cinema were not keen to implement the POSH (Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace - Prevention, Prohibition and Rederessal) Act which mandated an Internal Complaints Committee in every set with 10 or more employees, Satheedevi said. It was only after the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) and the Women’s Commission approached the court that the POSH Act was mandatorily implemented in the film industry.
The government faced criticism for undue delay in the publication of the report, which was submitted in December 2019. Several RTIs seeking copies of the report were filed since January 2020. However the government dilly-dallied for years, citing the privacy of the women who had deposed before the Hema Committee, and only releasing a two-page recommendation with vague details. The Hema Committee was formed in July 2017 in the aftermath of the sexual assault of a woman actor in a car in Kochi in February that year.
