Special Investigation Team
Also called: SIT · Topic: Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial Bodies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is a temporary team of officers set up to investigate one serious case or one set of linked cases. A court or a government usually creates it through an order. No Act of Parliament sets it up, so it is not a statutory body and has no permanent legal existence. Its members are often drawn from different agencies, such as central agencies, state police and expert regulators. Courts use SITs when they do not trust an ordinary police probe to be fair. In a "court-monitored" probe, the SIT reports to the court and the judges keep watch on its progress.
Example
In the Tirupati laddu ghee adulteration case, the Supreme Court ordered an SIT to probe fake ghee supplied to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. Its five members were two officers from the CBI, two from the Andhra Pradesh Police and one from FSSAI, the food safety regulator. This mix brought together central investigators, local police and food-testing experts in a single team.
Don't confuse with
- Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): a permanent agency that was set up by a 1963 resolution and gets its powers from the DSPE Act 1946. It handles many cases. An SIT exists only for one case and is wound up when that case is done.
- National Investigation Agency (NIA): a permanent statutory agency under the NIA Act 2008. It can probe scheduled offences anywhere in India without state consent. An SIT gets its powers only from the order that creates it.