NCERT Textbook Row: Supreme Court bars three authors from all government projects, orders expert committee to vet rewritten chapter
The Supreme Court also directed that the Government must identify and act against social media accounts it deemed irresponsible.
Ajitesh Singh
11 March 2026
WHEN THE SUPREME COURT assembled on Wednesday to take up the suo motu matter concerning the NCERT's Class 8 Social Science textbook, the hearing entailed three distinct developments. First, a set of concrete, consequential directions against the individuals who prepared the offending chapter; second, an order that the rewritten chapter must be vetted by an expert committee before it sees the inside of any classroom; and third, a series of remarks from the bench about social media critics that are likely to generate debate of their own.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi, and Vipul M. Pancholi was examining the compliance affidavit filed by NCERT Director Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani, who had earlier received a show-cause notice for potential criminal contempt. The affidavit, rather than settling the Court's concerns, appears to have deepened them.
Three authors barred from all public-funded projects
The most significant direction of the day concerned three individuals who were identified as having been involved in preparing the chapter in question: visiting professor Michel Danino, educator Suparna Diwakar and legal researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar. The Court directed the Union government, all state governments, Union Territories, universities and every institution receiving public funds to disassociate all three forthwith from any assignment involving public money.
The Court's stated reasoning was that the three either “lacked reasonable knowledge about the Indian judiciary or had deliberately misrepresented facts to project a negative image” of it before students at an impressionable age. “There is no reason why such persons be associated in any manner with the preparation of curriculum or finalisation of textbooks for the next generation,” the order stated.
The direction is sweeping in its scope, extending beyond NCERT to the entire ecosystem of publicly funded institutions, and was issued without a prior hearing of the individuals concerned. The Court did preserve a narrow avenue of recourse, clarifying that the bar would be subject to the three approaching the Court for modification along with an explanation.
Committee of domain experts to approve ‘rewritten chapter’
The Court had visible displeasure at the disclosure buried in the NCERT Director's affidavit wherein he noted that Chapter IV of the book had already been “duly rewritten” and would be incorporated into the 2026-27 curriculum. The affidavit offered no details of who had authored the revision, what it contained, or who had approved it.