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The members of the National Bar Council on Thursday expressed strong support to the Supreme Court after it issued a show cause notices to senior officials of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and Education Ministry over the inclusion of a sub-chapter titled "Corruption in the judiciary" in a Class 8 Social Science textbook.
The apex court issued notices to the Secretary of the Department of Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, and NCERT Director Dr Dinesh Prashad Saklani, asking why action should not be initiated under contempt or other applicable laws. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, refused to halt suo motu proceedings despite NCERT's apology and imposed a blanket ban on the contentious section. Senior Advocate Pinky Anand backed the court's move, saying the content appeared deliberate. "It (NCERT book's content) is surely calculated and targeted... You have picked one institution, then there cannot be a good reason behind that, it automatically goes in the wrong direction, and that is the way facts are pointing. You can't do this in education and against the judiciary... CJI was right to take action in this case to protect the judiciary institution and law and order," she told ANI. Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay also supported the intervention but called for a broader approach. "If the NCERT wants to add a chapter to the textbook of class 8, it should be about corruption and its consequences and not just about the judiciary... Even the Supreme Court has mentioned in its judgments that corruption is the biggest threat to our democracy... We should talk about the corruption in every institution and how to tackle it... the chapter should be about corruption in India rather than the judiciary," he stated. Advocate and Chairman of the All India Bar Association, Adish C Aggarwala, termed the move appropriate. "Judiciary has taken the right action because there is no corruption, and even if there is corruption, you can't add that to a syllabus. This is really a lapse on the part of the senior officers of NCERT," he said. The top court has also directed NCERT to submit detailed records of the committee that cleared the chapter. NCERT has since withdrawn distribution of the textbook and apologised, stating that the material will be reviewed and revised after due consultation. (ANI)
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