The Supreme Court has directed that three professors who prepared a controversial lesson titled “Judicial Corruption” for the CBSE Class 8 social science textbook should not be engaged in future syllabus or textbook preparation.
The disputed chapter was introduced by NCERT in the CBSE Class 8 social science book and triggered widespread controversy. A bench led by Chief Justice Suryakant, along with Justices Jaymalya Bagchi and Vipul Bansoli, has taken up the matter on its own and is hearing it.
In its order, the bench questioned the Centre’s affidavit and raised concerns that the lesson was added without proper approval. The court asked how such an inclusion could be treated as routine and whether the chapter was inserted without clearance from senior authorities.
The court named the three professors—Michael Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar—and said they are unfit to prepare textbooks meant for the next generation. It also directed that the Centre, state governments and government-aided educational institutions should not maintain any association with them or involve them in any government-funded educational work.
The bench further said that when adding content related to the judiciary, NCERT should seek inputs from a panel including a retired judge, a noted lawyer and a senior academic, as well as consult the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal. It ordered the Centre to constitute, within a week, an expert committee to finalise the judiciary-related syllabus.
