NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The NCERT has pulled a Class 8 textbook from its website after facing the Supreme Court’s ire over a chapter talking about judicial corruption, with sources saying the Government has not taken kindly to the inclusion of the controversial topic in the book.
The council, responsible for school education curriculum, is also considering the removal of the controversial portions from the books already printed, sources said.
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Several schools in the national capital, however, said they had no directive yet about whether or not to teach the portions concerned.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi has taken suo motu cognisance of the “objectionable” statements about the judiciary in NCERT textbooks after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, alongside Abhishek Singhvi, mentioned the matter for urgent consideration.
CJI Kant strongly objected to a chapter on judicial corruption in the NCERT’s Class 8 curriculum, saying nobody on earth will be allowed to defame the judiciary and taint its integrity.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT’s) new social science textbooks for Class 8 say corruption, a massive backlog of cases, and the lack of an adequate number of judges are among the challenges faced by the judicial system.
Meanwhile, the NCERT is said to have called an internal meeting to review the recommendations of the subject experts involved in the chapter and the officials who approved it. NCERT Chairman Dinesh Prasad Saklani did not respond to calls and messages on the issue. Another top official at the council refused to comment, saying the matter is sub judice now.
The Government sources said that while NCERT is an autonomous body, officials responsible for adding chapters should have applied their minds. If the issue of corruption was to be included in the textbook, it should have been related to all three organs — the executive, judiciary and the legislature, they said. (PTI)
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