Justice Indu Malhotra and K.K. Venugopal join expert panel to guide NCERT curriculum on Legal Studies

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court on Friday (March 20, 2026) that former apex court judge Justice Indu Malhotra and senior advocate K.K. Venugopal have agreed to be part of an expert committee to finalise the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curricula on Legal Studies for Class 8 and higher grades.

Editorial | ​Justice for all: On the NCERT textbook issue, the judiciary

Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, the top law officer for the Union Government orally submitted that the expert committee would collaborate/associate with retired Supreme Court Judge Aniruddha Bose, in his capacity as the Director of the National Judicial Academy, to finalise the curricula for these classes.

Chief Justice Kant orally expressed his satisfaction, stating that there was none better than these jurists to guide the framing of the curriculum.

The development followed a March 11 order of the Supreme Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper article that referred to a portion on “Corruption in the Judiciary” in a Class 8 Social Science textbook.

The Court had observed that the textbook chapter “The Role of the Judiciary in our Society”, particularly the sub-topic expounding “Corruption in the Judiciary”, was “prima-facie intended towards maligning the Indian judiciary”. It had initiated contempt proceedings against those behind the lesson.

On February 26, the Supreme Court had ordered the “blanket and complete” ban on the Social Science textbook despite the Centre withdrawing over 82,000 copies from circulation. The Court had seen it as a calculated move to create bias against the judiciary in the “impressionable minds” of children.

On March 11, the Court had taken strong exception to an NCERT statement that it had “duly rewritten” the chapter.

The Court had directed that the chapter, if revised, would not be published unless it was approved by a committee of domain experts. It had ordered the government to constitute the expert committee, which would include a former senior judge, an eminent academician and a renowned practitioner in law.

The Court had said the committee may associate with the National Judicial Academy to look into the curriculum on Legal Studies for not only Class 8 but other Classes too.

The Court had clarified the judiciary was not averse to objective and legitimate criticism about its institutional functioning.

“If the judiciary, like any other institution, is suffering from deficiencies and if an expert committee highlights such deficiencies, it would be a welcome step, not only for the future generation of this nation, including the future practitioners, but it would also open an avenue for the present stakeholders to take necessary remedial steps,” the Supreme Court had underscored.