Three educators “blacklisted” by the Supreme Court for preparing a controversial chapter on ‘Corruption in judiciary’ in a Class 8 National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Social Science textbook have said they are no “fly-by-night academics” and command “street cred”.
Author and scholar Michel Danino, educationist Suparna Divakar and legal researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar urged the court to hear them. All three were part of the Textbook Development Team (TDT) of the NCERT.
Selective outrage: on Supreme Court and NCERT textbook
Taking suo motu cognisance of the contents of the textbook and while orally remarking that “heads would roll” for portraying the judiciary in a biased manner, the Supreme Court had said the three pedagogues either did not possess “reasonable, informed knowledge about the Indian judiciary and/or deliberately misrepresented the facts in order to project a negative image of Indian judiciary before Class 8 students who are of an impressionable age”.
“We see no reason as to why this kind of persons be associated in any manner for the purpose of preparation of curriculum or finalisation of textbooks for the next generation of this country. Consequently, we direct the Government of India, State governments/Union Territories, universities and public institutions receiving government funds to disassociate the three of them forthwith and not to assign any responsibility which incurs, fully or partially, public funds,” the court had directed.
