New Delhi: NCERT has roped in three academicians as experts – Professor Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar – who Supreme Court Banned for life for “presenting a negative image of the judiciary” by mentioning about corruption in the judiciary in a Class 8 textbook, the apex court was approached on Monday for review of the order. Counsel for the petitioners said, “The textbooks of Class 6 and Class 7 deal with the issues faced by the legislature, the Election Commission and the executive… We want to show the procedures that have been followed… These are academics with great credibility.”

Senior advocates Arvind Datar, Gopal Shankaranarayanan and Sai Deepak, appearing for the trio, told the bench that blacklisting the academics has serious implications and requested a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to hear these applications urgently.CJI Kant asked, “Are you defending your actions?” Sankaranarayanan responded by saying, “We are giving a reference (to what was written in the Class VIII book). I was present when the newspaper article was mentioned before the court and told how the judiciary is being targeted (over the prevalence of corruption).”“The court can consider his detailed explanation,” Datar said for Danino. “It was a collective effort and no one person had the final say,” Deepak said.SC directed the registry to list the application for hearing. It says that no one else will be allowed to interfere in this matter.Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Education Ministry, told the bench about the formation of two committees to examine the existing curriculum and suggest a framework in consultation with the National Judicial Academy to eliminate uncontrolled reference to the judiciary in school textbooks.