The Supreme Court ordered a blanket ban on Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT textbook, which included controversial portions on judiciary. SC took suo motu cognisance on Wednesday over a new section on “corruption in the judiciary” in the class 8 Social Science NCERT textbook. Senior advocates Abhishek M singhvi and Kapil Sibal raised the issue before the Chief Justice of India (CJI)-led bench and questioned why the children were being taught about corruption in judiciary as if it didn’t exist anywhere else. CJI Justice Surya Kant acknowledged the issue and said that he was fully aware of the issue and that it concerns the entire institution. I will not let anybody, no matter how high up they are, defame the institution,” CJI said.
The CJI noted that the inclusion of the section appeared to be a “calculated and deep-rooted thing”. The court also said that those responsible for the incident must be held accountable. In response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta apologised in the court. “In the suo motu case, at the outset we tender an unconditional apology,” Mehta said. However, the bench noted that the response by NCERT lacked remorse, rather there seems to be more justification. The SC observed that it would be improper to expose students to a biased narrative at this young age.
