Lawyer and researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar, one of the three experts named by the Supreme Court in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbook’s “corruption in judiciary” chapter row, said he is “surprised” that NCERT director Dinesh Saklani has “unjustifiably singled out” three experts for the controversy.
Mr. Kumar, professor Michel Danino and Suparna Diwakar have been held “responsible for drafting the said chapter without mentioning the other persons involved or the process followed.”
Mr. Kumar is the co-founder of Vidhi Centre of Legal Policy, and has taught at NALSAR University of Law, National Law University - Delhi, National Law School of India and West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. He is one of the fifteen contributors of the Textbook Development Team (TDT) and was tasked with drafting the chapter ‘Role of Judiciary in Society’ in the Class 8 social science textbook published in February this year.
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“The policy of the NCERT as was communicated to me was that there would be no individual authorship of any chapter and that my contributions would be acknowledged as a contributor in accordance with the NCERT Textbook Development Committee policy,” Mr. Kumar’s affidavit said.
