Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The central government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted a three-member expert committee to rewrite the chapter on the judiciary in the NCERT Class 8 textbook, following a row over a section referring to “corruption in the judiciary.”The committee comprises former Attorney General K. K. Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra, and Justice Aniruddha Bose.After the government assured the Court about the formation of the committee, the Supreme Court closed its suo motu proceedings in the matter. The Court had earlier stayed the sale of the book and sought responses from the authorities.NCERT had earlier acknowledged the error and withdrawn the chapter. On February 25, it pulled the new Class 8 Social Science textbook from sale.The issue was raised before the CJI-led bench by senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. They argued that students were being taught about corruption in the judiciary as if it existed in no other institution.“They have left out bureaucracy, politics, etc. Not a word on other sectors. They are teaching as if it only exists in this institution,” the senior lawyers said.CJI Surya Kant said that no one would be allowed to “defame” the institution of judiciary and initiated suo motu proceedings over the inclusion of the section in the textbook.The inclusion of the section marked a notable shift from previous editions, which had largely focused on the structure and role of courts. The revised chapter, titled “The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society,” went beyond explaining court hierarchy and access to justice, and addressed challenges faced by the judicial system, including corruption and case backlogs.
