The Supreme Court on Friday (May 22) recalled its previous order against three academicians, Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, who were recently banned by the Court for the contents of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) class 8 textbook chapter they drafted on corruption in judiciary.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi modified its order of March 11, and the Bench deleted the direction in which the Central government, States, universities and educational institutions were directed to disassociate themselves from the three academicians.
"...in view of the explanation furnished by the applicants, namely the authors, we deem it appropriate to modify paragraph 8 of the order and recall the direction issued to the Government of India, the State Governments, Union Territories, universities, and educational institutions to disassociate themselves from the applicants in academic activities," the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant stated. "In this regard, we leave it open to the Union of India, the State Governments, and other competent authorities to take an independent decision without being influenced by the observations made in paragraph 8 of the aforesaid order."
The Court also recalled its observation that three experts had deliberately misrepresented facts in the controversial chapter. The Bench clarified that the "opening line of paragraph 8 of the order, to the effect that the three applicants had deliberately or knowingly misrepresented facts, is also recalled in light of the explanation tendered by them."
This hearing was conducted on the controversy that had erupted in February 2026 after media reports stated that a portion in the chapter on “The role of the judiciary in our society" in the Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 8, Vol. 2) was allegedly based on corruption in judiciary. The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu congnizance of the class 8 social science textbook published by NCERT. Following this, NCERT called it an inadvertent error of judgment and withdrew the said portion of the book.
During the hearing, the apex Court had imposed a blanket ban on production and distribution of the book, and later ordered that the three listed experts should not be associated in any manner whatsoever with the preparation of the curricula or the finalization of textbooks in India.
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Harish V Nair is Senior Editor (Legal) with Times Now TV. In his journalism career spanning 20 years, he has specialised in coverage of Supreme Court...View More
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