# Odisha textbook errors: High Court seeks government affidavit 2026-10-31T04:31:21+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 4 independent outlets (5 source reports) The Orissa High Court on Friday, 30 October, directed the Odisha government to file an affidavit within a week in a PIL alleging 1,678 errors in 55 textbooks for Classes I to VIII for the 2026-27 academic session. A division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Chittaranjan Dash fixed 9 November for the next hearing. The petition, filed by RTI activist and advocate Prabir Kumar Das, argues that error-free textbooks are a fundamental right under Article 21A and the RTE Act. Class VIII textbooks contain the most errors at 705, followed by Class VII with 387 and Class VI with 289. The petitioner claims the errors caused an estimated loss of Rs 175 crore and seeks implementation of recommendations by a high-level committee chaired by the Development Commissioner, formed in June after the controversy. The state had already suspended four officials, and the Crime Branch arrested former SCERT director Manoj Kumar Padhy. Update, 31 October 2026: Odishabytes now also reports the Orissa High Court direction to the Odisha government to file an affidavit within a week on the textbook errors PIL. It confirms the 1,678 errors, the 55 textbooks, the 9 November hearing date, the suspension of four officials, and the Crime Branch arrest of former SCERT director Manoj Kumar Padhy, matching the facts reported earlier by Sambad English and Orissa Post. ## Indian Opinion Analysis All four sources report the same Orissa High Court direction on the textbook errors PIL, each running near-identical wire copy. The Times of India story is the only one to add a separate Gujarat High Court notice on a similar issue, but that is a different event and does not affect the Odisha coverage. The three Odisha-focused outlets (Sambad English, Orissa Post, Odishabytes) give uniform factual details: 1,678 errors in 55 textbooks, a week-long affidavit deadline, and a 9 November hearing. Orissa Post provides the most granular breakdown of errors by class and names the statutory bodies involved, while the others keep the account briefer. None of the four carries a pro-government or critical slant, all present the court order and the petitioner’s claims without editorial comment. The only concrete next step is the 9 November hearing date, which all Odisha sources confirm. ## Coverage Coverage: 3 sources, 3 neutral - timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report) Facts-only wire copy of court order and petition claims - Syndicated copy - sambadenglish.com Straight report of court directive and petitioner arguments - odishabytes.com Concise wire copy of court order and background - orissapost.com (neutral report) Detailed error tally and RTE Act provisions, no slant This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: Development Commissioner, Odisha government, Orissa High Court, Prabir Kumar Das, Right to Education Act, SCERT Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/high-court-notice-to-odisha-government-over-1678-textbook-errors/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/high-court-notice-to-odisha-government-over-1678-textbook-errors/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/