Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed all central and state educational institutions receiving public funds, either partially or fully, to disassociate the chairperson of NCERT social science curriculum, Professor Michel Denino, along with his two associate members from any role in preparing or finalising curriculum and textbooks for the next generation.“At the outset we have no reason to doubt that professor Michel Danino along with Ms Diwakar and Mr Alok Prasanna Kumar either does not reasonable knowledge about Indian judiciary or they deliberately knowingly misrepresented the facts in order to project a negative image of Indian judiciary before students of Class 8 who are at an impressionable age. There is no reason as to why such persons be associated in any manner with preparation of curriculum or finalisation of text book for the next generation. We direct union, all states, all institutions recieving state funds, to disassociate them from rendering any service which would mean payment to them from public funds”, the Court said.The bench has further said that it would appreciate if the Centre constituted an expert committee to review school curriculum, instead of asking the NCERT to do so.The announcement came as the Centre informed the court that it has directed the NCERT to review textbooks for all classes.A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said that, “instead of asking the NCERT to do so, it would have appreciated if the Centre constituted an expert committee to review the curriculum.”The apex court was hearing a suo motu case concerning NCERT’s Class 8 social science textbook, which contained what the court called “offending” content on corruption in the judiciary.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, “We have started systemic changes. Nothing will be published without being vetted by the domain experts.” He also assured the court that a panel of domain experts would be constituted to examine the curriculum.Mehta further informed the bench that the NCERT director has filed an affidavit tendering an “unconditional and unqualified apology.”On Tuesday, NCERT had publicly apologised for publishing the controversial chapter, stating: “The Director and Members of NCERT hereby tender an unconditional and unqualified apology for the said Chapter IV. The entire book has been withdrawn and is not available.”The court had also issued a show-cause notice to the NCERT Director and the School Education Secretary, asking them to explain why action should not be taken over the content. It directed that all hard and digital copies of the textbook be seized from schools, retail outlets, and storage and mandated that principals and state education secretaries submit compliance reports.Earlier, on February 26, the top court imposed a “complete blanket ban” on any further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the Class 8 textbook.The court had observed that there appeared to be a “deep-rooted conspiracy” and “calculated move” to undermine the institution and demean the dignity of the judiciary. It had directed that all copies of the book currently in circulation be immediately seized and removed from public access.
