The Central Government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted a three-member expert committee to redraft the chapter on the judiciary in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Class 8 textbook after the chapter and its authors were banned by the top court. The committee comprises former Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, and former Supreme Court judges Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Aniruddha Bose.
The Central Government has 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. The committee comprises former Attorney General K. K. Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Indu…
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2026
The development follows a major controversy that erupted in February 2026 over a section in the Class 8 Social Science textbook that referred to “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” while discussing the mounting backlog of cases. The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter, describing the content as a “deep-rooted conspiracy” aimed at portraying the judiciary as corrupt and instilling bias in young minds. The court ordered a complete ban on the textbook, stayed its sale and distribution, and directed NCERT to explain the inclusion of the “inappropriate material.”
NCERT subsequently apologised, acknowledging the error as “unintentional,” withdrew the contentious chapter, and assured the court that the portion would be rewritten before the 2026-27 academic session. The Supreme Court also ordered that academicians Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, who were behind the ‘offensive’ chapter, would not be involved in any government project.
During today’s hearing, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati informed the bench that the expert committee has been formed to ensure the chapter is redrafted with due care and accuracy. Upon receiving this assurance, the Supreme Court closed its suo motu proceedings in the matter.
The committee’s mandate is to review and rewrite the chapter on the judiciary, ensuring it presents an accurate and balanced perspective suitable for school students. No timeline for the completion of the revised chapter has been publicly specified yet.
