Government in the Dock: High Court’s Scathing Rebuke Exposes Culture of Fear and Secrecy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ∙ The High Court further criticized the state government for not following up on the Hema Commission report on exploitation of women in the film industry. Every time the case was heard, the government was criticized for its inaction.

Even after receiving the report, the government is facing headaches due to the High Court’s criticism of the cold storage process without taking any action for five years. Earlier, the Special Division Bench had said that the government’s silence was appalling. Today, the court criticized that the government’s silence was mysterious.

The High Court has termed the government’s action as mysterious in its verdict rejecting actor Siddique’s bail plea in the case of molestation of a young actress. In the judgment, Justice CS Dias said it was mysterious that the government maintained a mysterious silence despite receiving the report in 2019. The High Court also pointed out that the report came to light due to the court’s intervention.

Justice Dias also said that the legal issues and follow-up to the capture of the government report are being considered by the division bench and they will not delve further into the matter. The publication of the report also made it clear in the judgment that the people were strong. This is the second time the High Court has strongly criticized the government’s action in seizing the report.

And earlier this month The High Court had criticized the government’s inaction for not following up on the report. Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice CS Sudha of the special bench hearing the Hema committee matter accused the government of remaining silent even after 4 years of receiving the committee report and this inconsistency is alarming. The court asked what action was taken by the government after receiving the report on December 31, 2019. The court said the government’s inaction was astonishing.

The court had said that though it was an inquiry committee, considering the amount spent from the public exchequer for the effective functioning of the Hema committee and the high-profile nature of the committee headed by a retired High Court judge, the government should have taken a proper decision whether it agreed with the findings of the committee or not. But that did not happen.

All citizens have a responsibility to prevent trends that undermine the dignity of women. The court also said that the government cannot remain silent about the social and economic injustice faced by women. The court also ordered the government, which has been playing hide and seek, to hand over the report to it and examine the possibility of legal action to see if the special investigation team will conduct an investigation into the secret statements contained in the report.

Thus, the information kept secret by the government in the name of privacy also came under investigation. The investigation was upheld by the High Court. Justice K. Hema, who headed the commission, gave a letter stating that the report should not have been made public and that the report was kept secret for a long time. But after the report was made public, the government was cut off after sexual allegations were made publicly, including against film academy president Ranjith and CPM MLA Mukesh.

To counter this, a special investigation team comprising women IPS officers was constituted. Even then, the order clarifying the objects of their investigation was not ready to be made public. The special investigation team, however, did not touch the Hema Committee report and acted only on allegations and public revelations. It was with the strong intervention of the High Court that these government tricks collapsed and paved the way for further legal proceedings.