NCERT text on M F Hussain challenged in Delhi High Court

New Delhi: An NCERT text which asks students to prepare the autobiography of noted and controversial painter M F Hussian as a part of the syllabus, has been challenged before the Delhi High Court by an aggrieved teacher.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna today agreed to examine the validity of the text some time in November on a petition filed by Ved Rajput, a teacher in Naraina, who alleged it was "objectionable".

Aggrieved with the text, Rajput refused to teach it to the students and said "forcing teachers to teach about him and collect his painting is against the norms of the teaching profession." Terming the syllabus "shameful in nature", Rajput’s counsel Arun Bhardwaj submitted that Hussain had depicted Hindu deities in a perverse manner and teaching about him was against "professional ethics".

The petitioner also sought Court’s permission to intervene into a PIL that was filed by educationist Dina Nath Batra and pending before it, which pointed out some "objectionable" chapters in the NCERT text books for students of class-XI and XII.

"I am shocked to find a Hindi text for class-XII potraying a teacher in a bad shape for his tution work. The profession was undermined and the teacher fraternity has been insulted by the text," he added.

He further contended that some "derogatory" words were used to describe persons of Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribe women in the text book which were objectionable in nature.

Source: Yahoo.com

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