R Venkata Rao, former vice-chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti, and Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) Chairman Raghuvendra Tanwar are now part of the NCERT’s National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC), which has been reconstituted after the Supreme Court took up the matter of a section on “corruption in the judiciary” in the now-withdrawn Class 8 social science textbook.The committee, which was reconstituted through an NCERT notification issued last week, also includes Amarendra Prasad Behera, Joint Director-in-Charge, Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT.The NCERT notification dated April 2 states that NSTC will be assisted by textbook development teams in developing syllabi and textbooks for each subject, and that the chairperson and co-chairperson of NSTC will constitute the teams, with appropriate experts, in consultation with the Council director.“The NSTC will be free to invite other experts for advice, consultation, and support as and when required in consultation with NCERT. The NSTC will be assisted by a Programme Office set up by the NCERT, and the NCERT shall provide all necessary expertise and support as per the needs of the NSTC,” it added.Danino removedThe reconstituted NSTC comprises 20 members. It no longer includes three names that were part of the old committee: Michel Danino, former guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar; Bibek Debroy, former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), who died in November ߨ and M D Srinivas, chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai.Danino was removed from NSTC after the Supreme Court directed the Centre, states, Union Territories, universities, and public institutions to dissociate from three members of the textbook development team who drafted the chapter on the judiciary in the NCERT Class 8 social science textbook, with Danino among them.In an affidavit filed by NCERT on March 10 in the Supreme Court in the matter of the textbook section on “corruption in the judiciary”, Debroy’s name was included as a member of NSTC.Story continues below this adAlso Read | NCERT Director: New books being reviewed as much as possible to limit possibility of explosionIn an order in the case in March, the Supreme Court said, “Furthermore, we must state that we find it slightly disappointing that not a single eminent jurist has been included in the NSTC, especially when the NCERT desires to teach young students about the Judiciary and the law. We, however, leave the reconstitution of the NSTC entirely to the discretion of the Competent Authority.”The Supreme Court had taken up a suo motu case in the matter of the section on “corruption in the judiciary” in the Class 8 social science book released in February. The court slammed the chapter on the judiciary as a “calculated move to undermine and demean the dignity of the judiciary”, and imposed a “complete blanket ban” on further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the textbook.Meanwhile, Danino, Suparna Diwakar, and Alok Prasanna Kumar have approached the Supreme Courtseeking to vacate a “blacklisting” order issued against them.Some members retainedIn the reconstituted NSTC, NCERT has retained former National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) Chancellor M C Pant as the chairperson, along with Princeton University math professor Manjul Bhargava as the co-chairperson.Story continues below this adAdditionally, 14 members of the old committee have also been retained in the reconstituted one. This includes EAC-PM member Sanjeev Sanyal; Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty; singer Shankar Mahadevan; former national badminton coach U. Vimal Kumar; Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairman, Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti; and Gajanan Londhe, head of the NSTC’s programme office.Also Read | Before ‘corruption in judiciary’, the 15 instances where NCERT textbook revisions went unchallengedFirst constituted in 2023 with 19 members, NSTC was tasked with developing the school syllabus and new textbooks, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2023.The 2023 notification that first established the NSTC provided for curricular area groups (CAGs), which would be constituted by the NSTC chairperson and co-chairperson. According to the notification that established the social science CAG with Danino as chairperson in 2023, a subset of the CAG would then develop the textbooks for the subject. The notification released last week does not mention the CAG.