India's Supreme Court barred the state of Chhattisgarh or the central government from appointing so-called "special police officers" from among the tribal population to fight the Maoist rebels, saying that the Salwa Judum militia is unconstitutional, CNN/IBN reports.

The court also ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh during his visit to Maoist-hit Chhattisgarh in March, the news channel said.

The issue of SPOs has arisen during the hearing of a petition against existence of Salwa Judum (vigilante groups) in Naxal-hit regions of the state to fight Maoists.
The petition was filed by sociologist Nandini Sundar, historian Ramachandra Guha, former bureaucrat E A S Sarma and others seeking a direction to the state government to refrain from allegedly supporting Salwa Judum.

The issue of attack on Swami Agnivesh was brought before the court in the month of April this year.

Earlier, Agnivesh had said that Salwa Judum was still active and the chief minister was indulging in double-speak as no FIR has been lodged against any of its members as per the recommendation of the NHRC.

Swami Agnivesh had come to the court in March this year when he was attacked by a group of people – allegedly consisting of SPOs and Salwa Judum volunteers – when he was visiting a Naxal region near Dantewada with activists of the Art of Living of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

During the last hearing of the issue on May 4, the state government had justified the appointment of SPOs saying they have excelled in performing police duties.
It had also asserted that in anti-Maoist operations SPOs are of immense help in their role as guides, translators, spotters and on certain occasions they have saved the lives of regular security personnel while preventing more than dozen Maoist attacks on relief camps and helped security forces in anti-Naxal operations.

In 2008, the National Human Rights Commission found that the Salwa Judum committed various atrocities — including rape and murder — in the course of fighting the Maoist rebels.