Supreme Court Modifies Order Against Academics Over NCERT Judiciary Chapter

Following a dispute over an NCERT book chapter that contained "offending" material on judicial corruption, the Supreme Court on Friday amended its March 11 ruling, which had instructed the Centre, states, and others to disassociate with three academics.

The Centre, states, Union territories, public colleges, and institutions that receive funding from the federal or state governments are all free to make their own decisions on the matter without being swayed by the Supreme Court's findings in the March 11 decree.

The section of the March 11 order that stated that Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar, and Alok Prasanna Kumar had "deliberately and knowingly misrepresented the facts" to give the eighth-grade students a bad impression of the Indian judiciary was also recalled by a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi, and Vipul M. Pancholi.

The bench passed the order while hearing a plea moved by the three academics who explained their stand, saying no individual had the sole say in the drafting of the content, and it was a collective process.

The court also observed that its comments were made in the context of the contents and not the individuals.

The court ordered the Centre and all states to distance themselves from the three experts who wrote the contentious chapter in the National Council of Educational Research and Training's (NCERT) social science book for Class 8 on March 11.

In order to finalise the NCERT's legal studies curriculum for both Class 8 and upper classes, it had instructed the Centre to assemble a committee of subject matter experts within a week.

The case "In Re: Social Science textbook for Grade-8 (part-2) published by NCERT and ancillary issues" was being heard by the bench suo motu, or on its own initiative.

The court was informed that the chapter was drafted by the textbook development team under Danino's chairmanship and consisted of members Diwakar and Kumar.

On February 26, the apex court imposed a "blanket ban" on any further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the NCERT's Class-8 social science textbook that contained the "offending" contents on corruption in the judiciary, saying they have fired a gunshot and the judiciary is "bleeding"