The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed an earlier direction that required the Maharashtra government to form a Special Investigation Team consisting of senior police officers from both Hindu and Muslim communities to investigate an assault linked to the 2023 Akola communal riots, Live Law reported.
Hearing the State’s review petition, a bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices K. Vinod Chandran and N.V. Anjaria issued notice and ordered that the controversial paragraph of the judgment be put on hold “for four weeks,” noting that the matter needed reconsideration.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State, urged the Court to stay the direction, arguing that “neither the accused nor the complainant can choose the investigating agency,” and citing the Divine Retreat Centre precedent to support his contention.
The stay comes days after a split verdict by Justices Sanjay Kumar and S.C. Sharma on the Maharashtra government’s review plea. Justice Kumar had strongly defended the earlier order, observing that the inclusion of both communities in the SIT was meant to “ensure transparency and fairness” in a case with “a communal colour,” and stressing that “secularism needs to be actuated in practice and reality.”
Justice Sharma, however, took a different view and issued notice on the review, signalling that the directive required further examination.
The communal violence that broke out in Akola in May 2023 after an allegedly objectionable social media post about Prophet Muhammad.
One man, Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad, was killed, and the respondent, 17-year-old Md Afzal, was seriously injured.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
