Kataka: A special court in Kataka has granted bail to former State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) director Manoj Kumar Padhy, ruling that his continued detention in the school textbook error case would amount to pretrial punishment when the prosecution had yet to establish any prima facie personal gain or criminal benefit.
Padhy, a senior Odisha Administrative Service officer, was arrested by the Crime Branch on July 13 in connection with the publication of error-ridden textbooks for Classes 1 to 8. He faces allegations of criminal negligence, conspiracy and criminal breach of trust for allegedly approving print-ready manuscripts without ensuring proper factual verification.
The case pertains to 1,678 errors across 55 books prepared under the National Education Policy 2020. These included factual inaccuracies, spelling and grammatical errors, incorrect names of personalities, mismatched images such as the Karnataka Legislative Assembly identified as Odisha’s, the Hampi temple complex labelled as the Konark Sun Temple, and Isaac Newton described as the “greatest pilot.” The irregularities are estimated to have caused a loss of around ₹175 crore to the state exchequer and affected nearly 46 lakh students.
Challenging the rejection of his bail plea by the JMFC-III Cuttack on July 14, Padhy secured relief from the special court presided over by additional special judge Sarojini Pati. The court observed that the case rests primarily on documentary evidence and that the investigation has substantially progressed, stating that further detention of the accused would in no way help the prosecution. It directed his release on a bond of ₹1 lakh with two solvent sureties, subject to conditions including surrender of his passport, restriction on travel outside Odisha without prior permission, full cooperation with investigators, and a prohibition on influencing witnesses or tampering with evidence.
Taking note of Padhy’s three-decade career, the court remarked that his elevation to the post of director suggested no serious past allegations regarding his integrity. It further noted that he was neither a member of any committee that developed or reviewed the textbooks and that the preparation of school books was team work, making it inappropriate to place the entire responsibility on him alone.
While acknowledging that Odisha had suffered an estimated financial loss of ₹175 crore and national embarrassment, and that the loss and damage sustained by 46 lakh students is a matter of concern which can never be compensated, the court emphasised that investigators had produced no material indicating Padhy had personally benefited. “Till date, not a single scrap of paper has been submitted by the prosecution to prove what benefit or pleasure the accused has derived,” the order said, adding that no attempt had even been made to verify suspicious financial transactions involving the accused or his family.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had earlier ordered a Crime Branch probe after describing the large-scale mistakes as possibly stemming from a conspiracy and suspended Padhy along with three assistant directors while initiating disciplinary proceedings against six others. The School and Mass Education Department has maintained that the process of correcting errors is underway on the basis of inputs from educationists and experts, with rectified versions to be provided to students soon.
This came amid fresh allegations of mistakes in the Odia textbook Jhulana-1 for Class 1 students in English-medium private schools, where the state supplies Odia language books—surfaced around the same time, including a spelling error in the word “Utkala” in the National Anthem, a missing word in the state song “Bande Utkala Janani,” and an unusual sequence for introducing the Odia alphabet. The department rejected these claims as unjustified while reiterating that revisions continue.
