A fresh petition has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging a passage in an NCERT Class 8 civics textbook for allegedly depicting the judiciary in a skewed manner. The plea, moved by a former NCERT academic associate, comes amid the Court’s ongoing scrutiny of school material and raises concerns about how constitutional courts are presented to young students across the country.
The challenge targets a sentence in Social and Political Life – III, in circulation since 2007, which states that “recent judgments tend to view the slum dweller as an encroacher in the city.” According to the petitioner, the line reduces complex eviction jurisprudence into a simplistic narrative and omits the constitutional balancing courts undertake between property rights, livelihood claims, statutory obligations and public interest.
The plea argues that presenting such a formulation to Class 8 students without context risks fostering the perception that courts are indifferent to vulnerable communities. The petition has been filed against the backdrop of the Court’s recent action over another Class 8 textbook that drew objections for remarks concerning corruption in the judiciary.
While the Court is yet to issue notice in the present plea, it had earlier cautioned in related proceedings that it would not permit any attempt to tarnish institutional credibility and warned that material interfering with the administration of justice could invite serious consequences. The new petition urges the Court to examine whether the textbook passage, if left uncorrected, undermines public confidence in constitutional courts.
The matter is expected to be considered in continuation of the ongoing proceedings concerning school textbooks.
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