NCERT Textbook Row : Centre Informs Supreme Court Of Expert Committee Members Reviewing Chapter On Judiciary

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court about the members of an expert committee tasked with reviewing a controversial chapter on the judiciary in the NCERT Class 8 textbook.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta named Senior Advocate and former Attorney General KK Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra, and National Judicial Academy Director and former Supreme Court judge Justice Aniruddha Bose as key members. Some reports mention an additional vice chancellor, aligning with the Court’s preference for a mix of judges, academics, and legal practitioners.

The Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, had earlier directed the Centre to form this panel after expressing dissatisfaction with NCERT’s plan to introduce a rewritten chapter without review. The controversy stems from content on judicial corruption and other observations, like those portraying slum dwellers as encroachers in older textbooks. The Court emphasized public rights to critique judgments while barring the original chapter’s authors from future public projects.

This update came on March 20, 2026, building on hearings from the prior week. The rewritten chapter cannot enter the syllabus until the committee approves it.