The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday directed the Centre and all state governments to disassociate from three experts involved in drafting a controversial chapter on corruption in the judiciary in an National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Class 8 social science textbook.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said the government and publicly funded institutions should immediately distance themselves from Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, who were part of the textbook development team that drafted the chapter.

The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, directed the Union government to constitute a committee of domain experts within a week to finalise the NCERT legal studies curriculum for Class 8 and higher classes.

The court said the committee should preferably include a former senior judge, an academician and a practising lawyer, and may also associate the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal for the exercise.

The bench further ordered that any rewritten version of the disputed chapter must not be published unless approved by the expert committee.

It also asked the Centre to revisit the composition of the National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC), particularly those with whom the chapter had been digitally shared.

The court noted affidavits filed by NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani and the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education, Government of India, both tendering an unconditional apology for the inclusion of the chapter.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that the Centre had already asked NCERT to review textbooks across all classes.

The court said its order was not intended to prevent objective or legitimate criticism of the judiciary but stressed that the curriculum must be prepared through an appropriate academic process.

On February 26, the apex court had imposed a blanket ban on further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the Class 8 social science textbook containing the chapter, saying the contents had caused harm to the institution of the judiciary.

Also Read: Judiciary chapter row: NCERT issues public apology, withdraws class 8 textbook