Days after a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant threatened that “heads must roll” for the “reckless, irresponsible, motivated, contemptuous conduct and manner” in which the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education, portrayed the judiciary as a venal institution in a Class 8 Social Science textbook, our guest, former Supreme Court judge, Justice Abhay S. Oka, takes a studied view of the controversy.

The podcast discusses if the government, through the NCERT, used the textbook as an anti-judiciary propaganda tool to influence young minds in their formative years. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the textbook’s contents. It imposed a “complete ban” and ordered the withdrawal of the textbook in an order on February 26. It said the textbook’s contents revealed “calculated” attempt to instill a sense of bias against the judiciary in the “impressionable minds” of young school children, and through them, to the society at large and even the future generations. The court has no intention to let go and has scheduled the suo motu case for further hearing on March 11, 2026.

The episode also debates if the ban on the book amounted to judicial censorship. Under Article 19(2) of the Constitution, free speech can be restricted only through a law.

Finally, the discussion delves into the court’s decision to initiate contempt action and going on a limb to make school principals “personally responsible” to “seize and seal” the copies of the textbook.

Guest: Justice Abhay S. Oka, former Supreme Court judge

Host: Krishnadas Rajagopal

Producer: Jude Weston

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