The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre and state governments to ensure that the three persons who were involved in drafting a chapter about “corruption in the judiciary” in a now-withdrawn textbook are not associated with other curriculum projects, Live Law reported.

The court also directed that the Union government, states, Union Territories and universities to not assign the three persons “any responsibility which involves public funds”.

The chapter was part of a Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. The educational body on Tuesday apologised for the chapter, and said that the entire book has been withdrawn.

This came two weeks after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and banned the publication and re-printing of the textbook.

An affidavit by NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said that a visiting professor, Michel Danino, had supervised the drafting of the chapter, while educator Suparna Diwakar and legal researcher Alok Prasanna Kumar were also involved in the process, Live Law reported.

Danino, an academic, has edited several textbooks, including those for the Central Board of Secondary Education. He has taught Indian civilization and culture at several institutions and was a guest professor at Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar between 2011 and 2017. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2017.

Diwakar is a co-founder...

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