New Delhi, May 22 -- The Supreme Court on Friday modified its March 11 order that directed the Centre, states, union territories and other universities or institutions to disassociate from three academics, following a row over an NCERT book chapter containing "offending" contents on corruption in the judiciary.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant accepted the explanation by the three experts - Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar - that they had no intention to show the judiciary in a bad light and that the preparation of the textbook was a collective effort.

The court left it to the states and the Centre to take an independent decision without being influenced by the court's earlier direction.

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