French-born scholar Michel Danino, former NCERT curricular chair, said he did not expect controversy over a withdrawn Class 8 social science subsection on judiciary, which he defends as correct. After Supreme Court of India’s order, he faced professional fallout including IIT Gandhinagar contract termination. He maintains it aimed at promoting critical thinking under NEP 2020.

New Delhi: Michel Danino, one of the three NCERT academics earlier barred for life by the Supreme Court over a controversial chapter on judiciary, has said that he “certainly didn't expect” the now-withdrawn section to trigger a major controversy, asserting that its content was “correct” and he stands by it.

A Padma Shri awardee, French-born Indian scholar Danino was the chairperson of the curricular group tasked with drafting social science textbooks for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

Two other members of the drafting committee -- Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar -- had also come under fire along with Danino after a controversy stemmed from a subsection in a now-withdrawn chapter of the Class 8 social science textbook on the role of judiciary in society.

Last week, the Supreme Court modified its March 11 order that called for disassociating from the three academicians over the row over the NCERT chapter containing “offending” contents on the judiciary, and left it open to the Centre, states, Union territories, public universities and institutions that receive funds from the Central or state governments to take an independent decision on the issue.