New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 1) closed the suo motu proceedings pertaining to a controversial chapter about “corruption in judiciary” in the NCERT class 9 social science textbook books after the Union government informed it that the chapter was withdrawn and textbooks with a new chapter are in circulation, reported LiveLaw.The order on Tuesday was passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, which noted that the chapter has been replaced based on the revisions suggested by an expert panel constituted by the Union government.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed the court that the textbooks with a new chapter were in circulation.Earlier, the Supreme Court had banned the book in February in a suo motu case. It had also directed Union and state governments to disassociate three academics from all publicly funded curriculum work over the chapter on corruption in judiciary in an NCERT textbook.However, on May 22, the top court had recalled its direction given to the Union government to disassociate the experts from academic activities.On Tuesday, the court also clarified the scope of its earlier order concerning the three academics, and stated that its previous order had merely recorded a submission made by solicitor general Mehta that the curriculum had not been shared with the committee as per the protocol and therefore was not a collective decision.The court clarified that it had not itself made any observation that the curriculum was not a collective decision. The clarification was made after considering an application filed by one of the academics, represented by senior advocate Arvind Datar.In the application, it was said that the observations of the court, if misconstrued as a judicial finding, will cause prejudice to them.Earlier, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) had said in a statement that the top court’s order constituted judicial overreach into the executive’s domain.“NCERT is an autonomous body and its textbooks were developed under the National Curriculum Framework 2023 through structured expert committees. Without examining or reasoning as to illegality, the Court banned the book and assumed the role of pedagogical expert which is a position it is not equipped to occupy,” the CJAR had said.