The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed its earlier order passed by a two-judge bench to constitute a Special Investigation Team comprising officers from both Hindu and Muslim communities to investigate an assault case linked to the 2023 Akola riots in Maharashtra, Live Law reported.

In September, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and SC Sharma had passed the directive to ensure “fairness in the probe” while hearing a petition by a Muslim boy who was 17 at the time and witnessed four men fatally attacking another man during riots in Akola, The Hindu reported. Mohammad Afzal had alleged that the men also assaulted him, leaving him with head injuries, the newspaper reported.

On May 13, 2023, violence broke out in Akola between Hindus and Muslims in connection with a social media post about the film The Kerala Story, which depicts how women from the southern state were allegedly converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State terrorist group. The post allegedly had derogatory content about Prophet Muhammad.

One person was killed and eight, including Afzal, were injured in the violence.

In his petition, Afzal had alleged the person who died, Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad, was killed under the false impression that he was Muslim, The Hindu reported.

Afzal alleged that instead of the real perpetrators, the police took biased action against Muslim persons and sought action against the officials responsible, Live Law reported.

“If, in fact, the deceased was really murdered under the impression that he belonged to Muslim community and the assailants were not of that community, that was a fact that had to be ascertained after thorough and proper investigation,” the Supreme Court had pointed out in September while ordering the formation of the SIT.

While delivering the judgement, Justice Sharma had noted that “when members of the police force don their uniforms, they are required to shed their personal predilections and biases, be they religious, racial, casteist or otherwise”, The Hindu reported.

“They must be true to the call of duty attached to their office and their uniform with absolute and total integrity. Unfortunately, in the case on hand, this did not happen,” the newspaper quoted him as saying at the time.

After the September order, the Maharashtra government had filed a review petition, contending the directions went against the principle of secularism by requiring religious identity to determine police postings.

On November 7, while hearing the Maharashtra government’s petition, the same bench delivered a split verdict. While Kumar dismissed the review petition, Sharma changed his mind, saying the question required reconsideration and issued a notice on the matter, Bar and Bench reported.

Kumar had held that the order was passed with an intention to ensure transparency and fairness in the investigation of a communal crime, Live Law reported.

“Secularism needs to be actuated in practice and reality, rather than be left on paper to be enshrined as a constitutional principle,” he had said in November.

With the conflict in opinion on the bench, the matter then came up before a three-judge bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, who on Monday stayed the September directive.

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