New Delhi: NCERT has hired three academicians as experts: Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, Supreme Court On Monday, he approached the Supreme Court seeking a review of the order as he had “created a negative image of the judiciary” by mentioning corruption in the judiciary in an eighth-class textbook. “Class VI and VII textbooks do deal with… issues faced by the Legislature, the Election Commission and the Executive… We want to show the procedures followed… These are academics of high credibility,” the petitioner’s counsel said.
Senior lawyers Arvind Datar, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Sai Deepak, appearing for the trio, told the bench that blacklisting academicians has serious implications and asked CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to entertain these hearing petitions on an urgent basis.CJI Kant asked, “Are you justifying your actions?” Sankara Narayanan responded, “We are giving context (to what is written in the Class VIII book). I was present when the newspaper article was mentioned in the court and told how the judiciary was singled out (about the prevalence of corruption).”Regarding Danino, Datar said, “The court may consider his detailed explanation.” Deepak said: “This is a group effort and no one has the final say.”SC directed the Registrar to list the hearing petitions. It said no one else would be allowed to interfere in the matter.Deputy Inspector General of Education KM Nataraj told the bench that two committees will be formed to review the existing syllabus to eliminate excessive references to the judiciary in school textbooks and come up with a framework in consultation with the National Judicial College.
