Contempt In, Criticism Out: The Supreme Court's NCERT Order and the Limits of Free Speech
Yash Jangrid | 24 March 2026 | The Wire
When the legislature restricts speech, courts can review it. When the executive does so, courts can strike it down. But when the Supreme Court itself adopts a speech-restrictive posture, constitutional remedies become limited. There is no appellate forum above it. Constitutional scholars often described this problem as an unchecked censorial power and it becomes particularly serious when the authority exercising it is the final judicial institution.
On March 11, a Supreme Court of India bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V.M. Pancholi, while hearing a suo motu petition concerning the Class 8 NCERT Social Science chapter “The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society,”…