In a rare judicial deadlock, the Supreme Court has split down the middle on whether Maharashtra’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2023 Akola riots should include officers from both Hindu and Muslim communities.
The bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma delivered opposing opinions on the state government’s plea seeking to review an earlier direction that mandated a religiously mixed SIT — a directive issued to ensure “transparency and fairness” after the police’s failure to act during the communal unrest.
Justice Sanjay Kumar stood firm, dismissing the state’s review plea and defending the earlier order as a practical embodiment of secularism, not a violation of it. “When communal colours taint an investigation, balance must be visibly restored,” he wrote, insisting that a team drawn from both faiths would reinforce public confidence in the justice system.
He also criticized what he called the “dubious and unprecedented” manner in which the state sought the review — by separately approaching both judges on the bench without disclosure.
Justice Kumar rejected the argument that such an order compromised institutional neutrality, noting instead that secularism “needs to be actuated in practice, not preserved as a decorative ideal.”
Justice Sharma, however, struck a contrasting note. Allowing the state’s plea for an open court hearing, he held that the question deserved reconsideration, calling it “a matter requiring further examination.”
He agreed that the intention behind the earlier order may have been noble, but warned that linking police appointments to religious identity risked clashing with the constitutional promise of a religion-neutral state.
With the judges pulling in opposite directions, the case will now move to Chief Justice BR Gavai, who must decide whether the issue warrants the attention of a larger bench.
For now, Maharashtra’s request sits suspended between two visions of secularism — one that seeks neutrality through separation, and another that demands inclusion for trust to survive.
