When the Protector Becomes the Prosecutor

On 26 February 2026, the Supreme Court of India, acting on its own motion (suo motu) and without any petitioner before it, issued a remarkable order. It banned a Class 8 social science textbook published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training, directed the physical seizure of all copies in circulation, ordered the removal of the book from every digital platform, threatened its authors with criminal contempt proceedings, and barred classroom instruction based on its contents — all in response to a chapter that described corruption in the judiciary and case backlogs as institutional challenges.