NCERT Textbook Row: Expert Panel To Review Chapter On Judiciary, Centre Tells Supreme Court
The government said a panel comprising senior advocate and former apex court judges will review the controversial NCERT lesson on judicial corruption.
Published : March 20, 2026 at 2:50 PM IST
New Delhi: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Friday apprised the Supreme Court that the Centre has proposed constituting an expert committee to review NCERT’s controversial chapter on judicial corruption.
The panel will comprise senior advocate and former Attorney General KK Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra, and National Judicial Academy Director and former Supreme Court judge Justice Aniruddha Bose.
Mehta made these submissions before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi. The bench was hearing another petition seeking the removal of certain other observations regarding a Supreme Court judgment from the old social science textbook of NCERT.
Mehta submitted that "we have appointed a committee, we have requested (the former AG) and he has accepted. Venugopal." He added that the former AG will be a member of the committee in drafting the chapter and Justice Indu Malhotra will be the judge. "We have requested Justice Aniruddha Bose to be kind enough to associate with this committee, and there will be a vice chancellor(who will be part of the panel)," he said.
Last month, NCERT’s proposed Class 8 social science textbook sparked controversy over a chapter dealing with corruption in the judiciary.
The apex court took a suo motu cognition over the chapter, and banned the book.
On March 11, the apex court said that it was worried by the stand of NCERT that the controversial chapter, which contained "offending" content on corruption in the judiciary, in Class 8 social sciences book has been "rewritten" and that the revised chapter will be incorporated in the textbooks for the 2026-27 academic year.
The bench had earlier directed the union government to constitute a committee of domain experts to finalise the curriculum related to legal studies in NCERT textbooks.
Read More
