Delhi High Court sends notice to MHRD and CBSE, seeks response on guidelines for selection of textbooks in schools

The Delhi High Court  issued notice to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and sought their replies on the petition seeking quashing of a CBSE circular allegedly forcing schools to prescribe text books printed by printers empanelled with the NCERT only. The plea has been filed by Independent Schools Federation of India.

The plea alleges that certain printers in the panel of NCERT are conspiring to create a monopoly in matters of publication of books.

The petition filed by advocate Ravi Prakash Gupta said the board had in a April 1 circular, issued direction to the CBSE affiliated schools to prescribe books only of publishers who were in the panel of NCERT. The plea further says this would "jeopardise innovation" in the making of the textbooks.

It further said that NCERT neither has the mandate of publishing school textbooks, nor can it manage ensuring timely preparation and publication or textbooks in all subjects in the entire spectrum of school education, adding that the NCERT has more focused role in research and training.

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The plea also claimed that the "text books prepared and published by private schools from other publishers are composed by renowned writers having vast experience in the field of teaching. These writers are far-far better than those recruited by NCERT for composing text books," it said. 

This story is based on an article originally published here.

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