The Supreme Court on Friday said it was open to “healthy criticism” and that “people have a right to criticise our judgments”, dismissing a contempt plea against the authors of a decade-old and deleted chapter in an NCERT school textbook.

The observation by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant comes at a time when the apex court has come down heavily on the NCERT for a chapter on “Corruption in judiciary” in a new Class VIII textbook.

Petitioner Pankaj Pushkar, a former NCERT member, had assailed as contemptuous a chapter, titled “Recent judgments tend to view the slum dwellers as encroachers in the city”, in an old Class VIII textbook printed in 2015-16.

But the bench, which included Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, underscored that the chapter had been replaced in later editions, and the petition had become “infructuous”.

Pushkar’s counsel argued that the matter still raised issues of contempt since the chapter would have changed perceptions about the judiciary among ordinary people, particularly slum dwellers.

“No, let us not go into it. That is a perception; a healthy criticism. Why should we be so sensitive about it?” Justice Kant said.

“The said part of the book explains the structure of the judiciary, how it works, what they have done and also highlights some good things.”

Justice Kant noted that the chapter said some court judgments could “go against the best interests of common people”.

“This is a viewpoint about a judgment and people have a right to criticise our judgments,” he said.

Textbook panel

The Centre informed the apex court that a four-member panel had been formed to rewrite the chapter on the judiciary in the current Class VIII textbook.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, representing the NCERT, said the panel included two former Supreme Court judges — Justices Indu Malhotra and Aniruddha Bose — former attorney-general K.K. Venugopal and a university vice-chancellor (whom he did not name). Justice Bose is now director of the National Judicial Academy.

On February 26, the Supreme Court had issued notices of criminal contempt against the Union school education secretary and NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani for the incorporation of the chapter “Corruption in judiciary” in the Class VIII textbook.

It had imposed a nationwide ban on the publication, circulation or sale of the
book in either physical or electronic format.

After learning that professors Michel Danion and Suparna Divakar and legal expert Alok Prasanna Kumar were behind the chapter, the bench had on March 11 directed the Centre, states and Union Territories to exclude the trio from any public-funded academic curriculum exercise.

It had also asked the government to identify the websites and individuals who had posted social media comments against the judiciary in connection with the controversy.