The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Tuesday tendered an “unconditional and unqualified apology” over the ‘Corruption in the Judiciary’ section in its Class VIII social science textbook, Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part II), which was released in February.“The Director and members of NCERT hereby tender an unconditional and unqualified apology for the said chapter. The entire book has been withdrawn and is not available,” the council said.The apology comes after the Supreme Court of India, on February 26, ordered a “complete blanket ban on any further publication, printing or digital dissemination” of the book.A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi had directed the Union government and state education departments to ensure that all printed and digital copies of the book were removed from public access.However, the Bench had earlier observed that a press release issued by the NCERT did not contain “a single word of apology” regarding the controversial section.