In the NCERT book controversy case, the central government has informed the Supreme Court of the members of the expert committee reviewing the disputed chapter. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court that senior lawyer and former Attorney General KK Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra, and the Director of the National Judicial Academy will be members of the committee. Former Supreme Court judge Justice Aniruddha Bose will also be a member of the expert committee.
The Supreme Court had expressed concern
Earlier, the Supreme Court had expressed concern over the stand of NCERT regarding rewriting of the chapter. The court cited the affidavit filed by the NCERT Director, which stated that the revised chapter will be included in the upcoming academic session 2026-27 and will be used for classroom teaching in schools as per the applicable curriculum and pedagogical framework. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi had said, “We are equally concerned with the stand expressed by the NCERT Director in paragraph 15 of the affidavit.”
The bench had said, “We direct that if Chapter 4 of the subject textbook has been rewritten in any manner, the same shall not be published unless it is approved by a committee comprising experts in the relevant field.”
It’s worth noting that the Supreme Court recently ordered the central government to form a domain expert committee in the NCERT textbook controversy. The Chief Justice stated, “An expert committee of domain experts should be formed within a week, and the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, should also be consulted to prepare materials on legal studies.”
Let us tell you that the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre and NCERT to remove Professor Michel Danino, teacher Suparna Diwakar and legal researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar from any role in preparing the school curriculum after their role in the controversial Class 8 textbook chapter.
