NCERT Class 8 Social Science Textbook Set to Return After Judiciary Chapter Rewrite

Overview

• The Supreme Court ordered the immediate withdrawal and seizure of NCERT’s Class 8 social science book in February 2026 after objecting to passages in Chapter 4 that described judicial corruption and case backlogs.
• NCERT issued an unconditional apology, called the inclusion an error of judgment, and convened an expert review committee to recommend edits to the contested chapter.
• According to NCERT sources, the revised manuscript removes references to judicial corruption, has cleared internal approvals, and has been sent for printing with a reported reissue expected in the third week of June.
• The court’s earlier March direction asking governments and public institutions to disassociate from three academics involved in the chapter was later deleted by the bench; the academics named were Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar.
• The ban disrupted school access to the title—just 38 of 225,000 printed copies were sold before seizure—and the dispute has prompted review of how textbooks are drafted, approved and overseen across the national curriculum system.