Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Thursday said a special division bench has been constituted to hear a public interest litigation regarding the Justice Hema Committee report and matters connected with it.

Initially some court sources said it would be a five-judge bench, but later the High Court registry issued a notice stating that Acting Chief Justice A Muhamed Mustaque had on August 29 ordered constituting the special bench.

Pursuant to the orders of the Acting Chief Justice, a special division bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice C S Sudha has been constituted to hear the PIL regarding the committee report and matters connected with it, the High Court registry said.

The panel 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.