Our attention has been drawn to a statement by the outgoing director of the NCERT wherein he has claimed that the Supreme Court judgement in the school-education case has “ upheld the superiority of the history text books during my regime.” The statement is patently false, misleading and mischievous. It also amounts to contempt of court.

It may be recalled that the history text-books were never under the review of the Supreme Court and therefore the Supreme Court opinion on their merit did not arise at all. The Supreme Court in fact focussed on the following two issues:

the role and importance of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in

BACK

approving the curriculum and whether the NCFSE can be held illegal in absence of the CABE’s approval, and
whether the inclusion of “ education about religious” violates article 28 (1) of the constitution.
The Supreme Court in its judgement upheld non-consultation with CABE cannot  be the ground for setting aside the National Curriculum Framework of School Education. At the same time a majority of the three-judge bench also underlined the desirability of the constitution of the CABE. As a matter of fact the MHRD under Mr. M.M.Joshi committed contempt of court by not constituting CABE.

Mr. Rajput’s latest assertion is in total violation of the conduct of service rules which apply even after his retirement and the MHRD should take immediate disciplinary action against him.