The Union government has informed the Supreme Court that it has constituted an expert committee to review the revised NCERT Class 8 social science chapter on the judiciary. The panel includes two former top court judges and a former attorney general, among others. This move comes against the backdrop of a controversy over an NCERT textbook chapter on "corruption in the judiciary" that triggered suo motu proceedings before the top court last month.
The bench, which also comprised justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, was hearing a separate public interest litigation challenging a passage in an older Class 8 textbook stating that "recent judgments tend to view the slum dweller as an encroacher in the city". Declining to interfere, the court observed that the statement reflected a "viewpoint" on judicial decisions and did not warrant judicial intervention.
The latest assurance by the Centre on the constitution of the expert panel follows a series of sharp observations and directions issued by the Supreme Court over the past month. The court had taken suo motu cognisance of a Class 8 social science textbook titled Exploring Society: India and Beyond, which contained references to alleged corruption and pendency in the judiciary.
