Supreme Court Modifies Order on Academics in NCERT Textbook Dispute

The Supreme Court on Friday modified its March 11 order that had directed the Centre, states and others to disassociate from three academics, following a row over an NCERT book chapter containing "offending" contents on corruption in the judiciary.

The apex court left it open to the Centre, states, Union territories, public universities and institutions that receive funds from the central or state governments to take an independent decision on the issue, without being influenced by its observations made in the March 11 order.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi also recalled the part of the March 11 order that had recorded that the three academics -- Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar -- had "deliberately and knowingly misrepresented the facts" in order to project a negative image of the Indian judiciary to the students of Class 8.

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 context of the contents and not the individuals.

On March 11, acting tough against the three experts involved in the drafting of the controversial chapter in the National Council of Educational Research and Training's (NCERT) social science book for Class 8, the court had directed the Centre and all states to disassociate from them.

It had directed the Centre to form a committee of domain experts within a week for the purpose of finalising the curriculum of the NCERT's legal studies for not only Class 8 but higher classes as well.

The bench was hearing a suo-motu (initiated on its own) case titled "In Re: Social Science textbook for Grade-8 (part-2) published by NCERT and ancillary issues".

The court was informed that the chapter was drafted by the textbook development team under Danino's chairmanship and consisting 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".