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| The Supreme Court of India, New Delhi |
A Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi revoked its order banning Michel Danino, the head of the Textbook Development Team of the National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT), and two team members from associating with government organisations or organisations receiving government funds today. The bench said the centre and state governments and other authorities will be free to take their own decisions on associating with them, independent of its observations. The bench also withdrew the first line of Paragraph 8 of its order, which said they had deliberately and knowingly misinterpreted the facts.
The educationists submitted that the March 11 order was passed ex parte, without even hearing their side of the story. They said the portions under scrutiny were included in the textbook as a result of a collective decision. The academicians said they were not just “fly-by-night operators” but were distinguished in their respective fields of education.
The Supreme Court, in a suo motu hearing on 26th February, 2026, objected to the mention of corruption and delay in a chapter of the book on the Indian judiciary and banned the entire book.
Michel Danino was part of a team that translated from French to English the Mother's Agenda, a 13-volume book series containing conversations of the Mother and the documents she gave to Satprem (Bernard Enginger), who was a disciple and inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Danino also published a book in collaboration with Sujatha on the Indus Valley Civilisation, presenting evidence disproving the Aryan Invasion Theory that was originally promoted by Western Indologists and widely accepted as a fact in Indian education. The Indian government, in 2017, conferred upon him the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian award. Danino was a member of the last International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Auroville Foundation, which completed its tenure in October 2025.
Ref: The New Indian Express & The Hindu
Related previous article: NCERT Class VIII Social Science Textbook Development Team banned from future assignments