Justice Hema Committee: Kerala HC extends jurisdiction of nodal officer to accept grievances

The court made it clear that all who have complaints must register it with the nodal officer before January 31.

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday decided to extend the jurisdiction of the nodal officer to accept the grievances of harassment from those in the Malayalam film industry who did not figure before the Justice Hema Committee.

The court made it clear that all who have complaints must register it with the nodal officer before January 31.

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It further ordered that the nodal officer, on receipt of such complaints of harassment/abuse, can forward these to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Kerala Police for further investigation.

The Special Bench of Justice A. K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice C. S. Sudha had, last month, directed the SIT probing offences relating to Justice Hema Committee Report, to nominate a nodal officer to take the complaints of other individuals in similar situations, regardless of whether they have provided statements to the Justice Hema Committee or not.

On Thursday, the bench said: “While the nodal officer has been nominated pursuant to our earlier order and sufficient publicity to the name and details of the said nodal officer is given so that persons who feel threatened, intimidated during the investigation on their complaints submitted before SIT can approach before the SIT with such complaints. It would be desirable to extend the jurisdiction of the nodal officer to cover even those grievances that will be raised by those persons in the film industry who have not approached the Hema Committee, so that any such person can submit individual grievances with regard to any harassment/abuse faced by them to the nodal officer for forwarding to SIT for investigation of the same. We see no impediment to expanding the jurisdiction of the nodal officer for the above purpose. We accordingly direct that the nodal officer shall on receipt of any such complaint from persons in the film industry, promptly forward the same to SIT for investigation by ensuring confidentiality…”

“This window is open only for the purposes of this. Suppose you have a complaint of harassment, you can always go to the police station… …the only advantage you get through this window is that you get confidentiality, whereas when you go to normal SHO, your name will come as complainant… why would a person who is already aggrieved wait for a period beyond what the court is permitting…You already have a platform….there is a certain protection that we can ensure…it will be from SIT to Court and no interference in between. If that does not inspire the confidence of those persons, then nothing will,” it added.

The court then posted the case for further hearing after the Christmas break.

The Hema Committee report was published in August and by now all those actors who had FIRs registered against them, have got bail. They include two-time CPI-M legislator Mukesh, Siddique, Edavela Babu, Jayasurya, Ranjith, Maniyanpillai Raju, Nivin Pauly and a few others.