Supreme Court removes ban on 3 authors who wrote NCERT Judiciary chapter

Key points

• The Supreme Court has lifted a ban on three academics associated with a controversial NCERT Class 8 chapter on corruption in the judiciary from participating in academic projects linked to public educational institutions.
• The court also deleted its earlier observation that the academics had “deliberately and knowingly” misrepresented facts to create a negative image of the judiciary before school students.
• A bench led by Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, passed the order while hearing applications filed by Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar.
• WHAT THE COURT SAID While the bench maintained that the textbook chapter was “wholly undesirable”, it accepted the academics’ explanation that the content was prepared collectively and without malicious intent.
• The court clarified that the Union government and state authorities are free to independently decide whether to associate the three academics with future academic projects, without being influenced by...