NEW DELHI: A group of 51 academics and scholars across the country have recently written to President Droupadi Murmu appealing for her urgent intervention to lift the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on the Class VIII Grade 2 Social Science textbook released by NCERT in February.
It has also called for a waiver of the harsh punishment imposed on the contributors to the textbook apart from publishing the book online without the controversial chapter.
A majority of the signatories of the letter dated April 7 are present and former teachers at IITs and IIMs and other reputed institutions along with a few concerned citizens.
On February 24, the NCERT published Exploring Society: India and Beyond, it elaborated. One of the textbook's eight chapters was titled "The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society", it said.
A section in it 'Challenges Faced by the Judicial System’ had two subsections, one about the large number of pending cases in Indian courts and the other about corruption in the Judiciary, the letter explained.
Billing the SC verdict as a case of judicial over reach, the letter sent on April 7 said, “Articles and blogs on many media platforms, including several authored by legal experts, have analysed the Supreme Court order and found that since, in India, a book can be banned only by law, the Supreme Court overreached its powers in banning the textbook.”
Some authors reported having seen the chapter and found nothing objectionable in it; a few even found that overall, the Judiciary was portrayed in a positive light, it added.
Referring to the contributors — Michel Danino, Alok Prasanna Kumar and Suparna Diwakar — the representation said the bench ordered "the Government of India, the State Governments, the Union Territories, as well as all public universities and institutions receiving funds from the Central or State Governments, to disassociate from these three members of the Textbook Development Team forthwith.”
It added, “Several analyses also pointed out that in breach of the principles of natural justice, the harsh blanket punishment of the three persons alleged to have drafted the contentious chapter was imposed without providing them with an opportunity to be heard. They also pointed out that this punishment would amount to a violation of their Fundamental Rights to employment and livelihood guaranteed by our Constitution.”
The ban has stifled any public debate on challenges faced by the judiciary, the letter stressed.
The letter charged, “By forcefully intervening in what is essentially an educational matter, threatening criminal contempt of court and banishing respected educationists without hearing them, the Supreme Court, which stands as the protector of freedom of expression, has encroached upon academic freedom and created an atmosphere of intimidation which may strike fear among present or future educationists.”
This will impede even positive and constructive critiques of our institutions, which are indispensable in a healthy democracy, it added.
The letter also called for the inclusion of distinguished jurists in the expert committee constituted to review the concerned chapter.