In a first if its kind judgment Apex court while acting on the complaint filed by the wife of a naval officer seeking a CBI probe into the alleged practice of wife-swapping among naval officers at Naval Base, Kochi, directed the Kerala Police to set up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe into the allegations.

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices R Banumathi and UU Lalit rejected the complainant's plea for a CBI probe into the allegations but said, "The facts and circumstances in which the offence is alleged to have been committed can be better investigated into by the state police."

The 26-year-old estranged wife of the naval officer had filed the petition in 2013 alleging that the police in Kerala, where her husband was based, and the naval authorities were harassing her rather than acting on her complaint.