The Hema Committee report being submitted to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by the panel members on December 31, 2019.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Under fire from Opposition parties and civil society, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala has attempted to put the ball firmly in the court of the Hema Committee for purportedly precluding the administration from taking legal cognisance of the inquiry panel’s incriminating report that documented, in harrowing detail, instances of sexual bullying, casting couch culture, dismal working conditions, gender pay gap and the threat of boycott that women artistes “encounter” in the Malayalam entertainment industry recurrently.
Former Culture Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] central committee member A.K. Balan on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) said the Hema Committee had not furnished the government with depositions from victims, which are estimated to be 400 pages long.
(The government constituted the committee when Mr. Balan was the Culture Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2017. The committee had submitted the report to the government under Mr. Balan’s watch in 2019.)
Mr. Balan said the committee’s decision to retain the incriminating evidence, including digital records, pre-empted the government and law enforcement from taking cognisance of the purported offences reported by the aggrieved parties.
He said the committee commenced its work in 2017 based on the fundamental premise that it would not publish or communicate to the government the victims’ statements or the evidence, including digital records, the aggrieved parties tendered in good faith to the inquiry panel.
Instead, Mr. Balan said, the committee limited its remit to submitting an advisory report to the government based on inferences drawn from given facts.
Mr. Balan said the committee’s empathetic position emboldened wronged women to candidly describe their tribulations in the industry to the Hema Committee. The committee honoured its word by keeping within its stated bounds.
Much-needed reforms
Nevertheless, Mr. Balan said, the committee paved the way for much-needed reforms in the entertainment industry, stressed the need for a regulatory mechanism to ensure workplace safety and fair remuneration for women and touched off a broad social reckoning about the entrenched malpractices in Malayalam filmdom.
Mr. Balan said the committee’s intractable position precluded the government from seeking prosecution based on the victim’s statements.
Moreover, Mr. Balan said, the Hema Committee did not come under the purview of the Commission of Enquiry Act. Its recommendations were non-binding and did not require the government to table the report in the Assembly.
He said the committee would be constrained to submit the findings to the government if the High Court orders so based on a public interest litigation. “Such an order, if at all, would open the door for prosecution. Law enforcement would take cognisance of the depositions and forge ahead”, Mr. Balan added.
No complaints received: Saji Cherian
Minister for Culture Saji Cherian took a similar stance. He said the Hema Committee had limited itself to generalities and stopped short of documenting specifics. Based on the committee’s extrapolations and sweeping findings, the government could not initiate prosecutions of individuals or institutions.
Mr. Cherian reiterated that none of the wronged persons who deposed before the Hema Committee had approached the court, the police or the government with a complaint.
