Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Culture Minister Saji Cherian on Wednesday claimed that the High Court did not criticise the ruling Left government over the Justice K Hema Committee report. He dismissed the reports as a "political drama" fabricated by certain media outlets.
Cherian clarified that the Kerala High Court only inquired about the actions taken by the state government upon receiving the committee's report. "It is a political drama created by some news media that the government has been pulled up or criticised," the minister said.
He said that the High Court was told by the Advocate General appearing for the state that it was Justice Hema herself who did not want the report to be disclosed to protect the privacy of persons mentioned in it.
The High Court has only asked the government to give the report to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to take the requisite action in accordance with law, the minister added. The High Court on Tuesday, in its order, said that the government's inaction on the report was "alarmingly lethargic."
A special division bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and C S Sudha had said that the government got the report over four years ago and ought to have immediately responded. It directed that the full report be handed over to the SIT to take the requisite action in accordance with the law.
The court had also said that "silence and inaction" were not options available to the state government any more and that it must take immediate steps to address the various issues generally faced by women in society.
It had further said that it was also "perplexed" by the government's inaction in a state where the population of females "has always exceeded that of the male" and the birth ratio of females has always been higher than the national average.
The Justice Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala government after the 2017 actress assault case and its report revealing instances of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry.
Following the allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation cropping up against several actors and directors in the wake of the report being made public, the state government on August 25 announced the establishment of a seven-member special investigation team to probe them.
