NEW DELHI: Months after the NCERT Social Science textbook for Class VIII courted controversy over references to judicial corruption leading to a blanket ban, a revised textbook with a reworked chapter on the judiciary is set to release by the third week of this month, officials at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said.
The chapter on the judiciary has been fully reworked with all references to judicial corruption removed, a senior official said. The book, released on February 24, was withdrawn by the NCERT a day later. The judiciary took serious objection to the details on corruption complaints against judges published in the book. The Supreme Court subsequently banned its sale.
Work on the textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond, Vol II was completed recently by the three-member committee set up by the Education Ministry to rewrite the chapter, said an official. “They have submitted it to the NCERT head office. The chapter on the judiciary has been thoroughly scrutinised, and any references to corruption have been removed,” said another official.
Former Attorney General K K Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra and Justice Aniruddha Bose were tasked with redoing the offending chapter.
“Though all other books have been released for Class IX students, we have held back both the Social Science Part I and II textbooks. The ministry has cautioned us that there was no room for any controversy in them,” an official said. One of the books will be out by June end, while the other could take till August.
Meanwhile, the Hindi versions of all the Class IX books will be released before June is out, the official added. Class X and XI books will be released in the next academic year.
