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Informist, Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Centre and state governments to exclude the three experts who were involved in the process of making the section on corruption in the judiciary in the National Council of Educational Research and Training's new social sciences textbook for Class VIII from any role in preparing school curricula or holding any position in state bodies.

 

The three experts--visiting professor Michel Danino, educator Suparna Diwakar, and legal researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar--either lack reasonable knowledge of the Indian judiciary or deliberately misrepresented facts to project a negative image of the judiciary before students of an impressionable age, the court said. Therefore, it said, there is no reason why they should be associated in any manner with preparation of curricula or finalisation of textbooks for the next generation.

 

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant directed the Centre to form a committee of domain experts, including one former senior judge, one renowned academician, and one renowned legal practitioner, without whose approval the revised chapter should not be published. Justice Kant said it was disappointing that not a single eminent jurist was part of the previous committee to review the chapter, even if the National Council of Educational Research and Training's goal was to teach the next generation about the judiciary.

 

The court also came down heavily on social media users for making negative comments after its order in February that directed a complete ban on the textbook and issued show-cause notices to the secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education and the director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training. "Some elements in so-called social media have acted irresponsibly," Justice Kant said. "We firmly believe in catching bull by its horns. We direct the government of India to identify the platforms and the persons who have indulged in so for lawful action to be taken." The court said it would not spare those responsible even if they were "hiding outside the country" and "law must take its own course".

 

The court noted that the secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy and the director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training have submitted an unconditional apology in the case. However, it was "disturbed" by the stand of the council that the controversial chapter has been "duly rewritten" and will be incorporated in textbooks for the 2026-27 academic year. It also noted an assurance by the Centre that the chapter will not be reprinted without being reviewed by the committee to be set up on the court's order.

 

The council's social sciences textbook for Class VIII had a section that talks about the challenges faced by the judicial system, including "corruption at various levels of the judiciary" and massive backlog of cases on account of multiple reasons, such as lack of adequate number of judges, complicated procedures, and poor infrastructure. The section said judges are bound by a code of conduct that governs not only their behaviour in court but also how they conduct themselves outside it. It refers to the judiciary's internal mechanism to maintain accountability and an "established procedure for receiving complaints through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System", adding that over 1,600 such complaints were received between 2017 and 2021. The court had registered a suo motu case and ordered a ban on the book in February.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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