With National agencies overburdened, Supreme Court opts for 'special' SITs

The Supreme Court constituted two special investigation teams (SITs) in two separate cases in May to investigate FIRs registered against Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay Shah for his comments against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad for his Facebook post on Operation Sindoor.

While constituting these SITs, SC passed distinct directions. First, it ordered that SIT members will be IPS officers. Second, all the three investigating officers should be from outside the state where the alleged offences were committed.

On May 19, a bench headed by justice Surya Kant elaborated on the reason for constituting these unique SITs.


"National investigating agencies are overburdened. Sometimes the delay in investigation frustrates the outcome," justice Kant had remarked, adding that such SITs have delivered "effective" outcomes in the recent past.

SC observed that in a few cases it might even monitor the investigations so that a case can be taken to its logical conclusion. In both cases, while constituting SITs, the bench made it clear that one of the three members of the SIT must be a woman IPS officer.

In the case of Shah, SC on May 19 constituted a three-member SIT to investigate the FIR filed by MP Police on the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that had taken suo motu cognisance of Shah's remarks against Colonel Qureshi, calling her a "sister of terrorists".

A bench of justices Kant and N Kotiswar Singh had directed Madhya Pradesh DGP to constitute an SIT of three IPS officers of Madhya Pradesh cadre, clarifying that they should be from outside MP. SIT will be headed by an officer not below the rank of inspector general. The other two would be of the rank of Superintendent of Police and above, SC had ordered. It had added that although it would refrain from monitoring a probe, but given the "peculiar facts and circumstances of the case", the SIT was directed to submit the outcome to SC.

In the case of Mahmudabad, SC on May 21 directed Haryana DGP to constitute an SIT of three IPS officers not belonging to Haryana or Delhi to investigate the allegations. One of the members of SIT, SC ordered, shall be a woman officer.