NCERT Book Row: Supreme Court sternly, says it would be good if the government forms an expert committee; now review all books

The Central Government informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it has directed NCERT to review textbooks for all classes. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi said that instead of asking NCERT to do so, it would have been better if the Centre had constituted an expert committee to review the curriculum.

The Supreme Court was hearing a suo motu case related to NCERT's Class 8 Social Science textbook, which contained objectionable content about the judiciary. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that the government had asked NCERT to review textbooks for all classes, not just Class 8. He assured the bench that a panel of domain experts would be formed to review the curriculum.

Mehta informed the court that major changes have been initiated to improve the system at NCERT. No new material will now be published without the approval of experts. The NCERT Director has also tendered an unconditional apology in an affidavit to the court.

Earlier, on February 26th, the Supreme Court had completely banned the printing and distribution of this book on the Internet. The court issued a very strong remark, stating that the contents of the book were like firing a shot at the judiciary and had deeply wounded the institution. The court termed it a deliberate and deliberate conspiracy to undermine the dignity of the judiciary. The court has ordered that all copies of this book available in the market be immediately confiscated and completely removed from public access.