The controversy over the now-withdrawn Class 8 Social Sciences textbook, which contains a chapter on judicial corruption, has highlighted shortcomings in the three-stage process followed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to approve new textbooks that are in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
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The report also points to gaps in the performance of the 19-member National Curriculum and Teaching and Learning Subjects Committee (NSTC), which is expected to sign off on the new books. The HT report shows that members did not explicitly approve the book, with many ignoring the draft text sent to them via WhatsApp and email. It also appears that the section on judicial corruption in one of the chapters was explicitly reported to the Committee.
The preparation of new textbooks in line with the National Curriculum Framework – School Education (NCF-SE) 2023 follows a three-stage process.
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The first phase involves the Textbook Development Team or TDT – a separate team for each subject in each class.
This is made up of experts and forms the core group that writes a textbook. In its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, NCERT said the chapter on “Role of Judiciary in Our Society” was drafted by the relevant TDT, comprising Professor Michel Danino, Subarna Diwakar, and legal scholar and lawyer Alok Prasanna Kumar.
The second phase has subject-based curriculum groups (CAGs). They supervise TDTs and handle textbooks for several semesters. Professor Danino also chairs the CAG for various social science textbooks.
The third stage is the NSTC which identifies the experts and contributors to the TDT and then gives final academic approval to the new books, after which the NCERT publishes and distributes the textbook.
As per the book development process, each chapter of the NCERT book is written by the contributors and finalized by the CAG for that particular topic. HT has learnt that draft chapters of the controversial social science book were presented to the 35-member CAG for Social Sciences in a hybrid meeting in September 2025 to finalize it before submitting it to the NSTC.
“This meeting was attended by NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani, along with other NCERT officials including those who happen to be members of the NSTC. Several members of the 13-member National Oversight Committee (NOC) whose job it is to ensure that the book adheres to the curriculum framework, also attended the meeting,” an NCERT official said on condition of anonymity. “Saklani and a few others raised concerns and objections to the controversial chapter on judicial corruption at this particular meeting, but Danino and others did not accept the suggestions and objections, citing academic freedom and other justifications.”
HT contacted Danino who said that since the matter is on trial, he will only respond to everything in court.
An official in the Federal Ministry of Education confirmed that the director of the National Emergency and Emergency Center, Al-Saklani, objected to “corruption in the judiciary.” Section, and include details of pending cases.
Saklani did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment.
But the book still has to be approved by the NSTC. The process is for NCERT to upload all the draft chapters of the textbooks into a folder and share them with the NSTC members before the body meeting. However, in this case, HT learned that the meeting was never called.
The draft was shared with members via email and WhatsApp, and it is not clear who among members saw it and who did not. It is also unknown whether any of them responded to the project.
HT understands that the last NSTC meeting, in hybrid mode, was in June 2025.
NCERT, in its affidavit before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, claimed that the draft of the textbook was not placed before the NSTC but was “distributed digitally among a few members only”. What he does not mention is that it is the duty of NCERT to hold NSTC meetings for each textbook.
The above-mentioned Ministry of Education official claimed that the reason the NSTC does not meet is because its members are too busy. The panel includes academics such as Professor Manjul Bhargava of Princeton and Sujatha Ramdurai of the University of British Columbia who live and work outside India. Both did not respond to an email sent by HT seeking comment.
The committee also includes Shankar Mahadevan, Rajya Sabha MP and author Sudha Murthy, and Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. The three did not respond to HT’s messages seeking comment.
The second official said: “One of the powers of this body is that everyone must meet and put the final touches on the texts. We later found that some members had not even seen the copy of the textbook.”
“They are not violations but there are systemic problems that we will fix now.”
The joint drafts did not raise any objections from the NSTC, and according to the first officer HT spoke to, some members supported the entire book. HT could not ascertain who was the person who did it – the NCERT certificate made no mention of this, attributing the error only to the TDT headed by Professor Danino.
The silence of some NSTC members, and the approval of others, was taken as a statement, and the planning and design of the book was completed. Danino, as CAG Chairman of Social Sciences, sent it to NCERT’s publishing department for printing in January.
NCERT Director Saklani said in the introduction to the now-withdrawn book, “…the text incorporates the values we want our students to develop, is rooted in the Indian cultural context and presents global perspectives in an age-appropriate manner.”
The textbook “succeeds in its methodological objectives: first, to foster natural curiosity among students through appropriate selection of content and second, through a pedagogical approach in line with the NCF-SE 2023 recommendations,” he wrote.
The second part of the 8th grade social science textbook was released on February 23 and withdrawn on February 24. Only 38 of the 82,440 print copies were sold, but were later recalled following a Supreme Court order on 27 February.
