The Central Board of Secondary Education on Saturday said it had filed an FIR against publisher New Saraswati House over its “indecent depiction of women and misrepresenting the syllabus prescribed” by the board in a textbook. A statement by the board said the FIR was based on complaints against the Class 12 textbook, titled Health and Physical Education and authored by Haryana-based Dr VK Sharma. The controversial textbook had said “36-24-36” was the “perfect body shape” for women.

Stating that the board does not recommend books by private publishers for its affiliate schools, the statement said a panel had been appointed to review the book. The committee found that the content was “not in consonance with the spirit of the syllabus and that the publisher and the author have committed criminal misconduct by publishing and selling these books to the students in connivance with some schools”.

On April 13, the Human Resources Department had said it would take action against the publisher for the inappropriate content. The printing, selling and distribution of the revised version of the textbook was stopped with “immediate effect”, the publisher had told The Times of India.

Citing rules mentioned under the Affiliation bye-laws of the Board, the CBSE on Wednesday had said schools have been asked to follow textbooks prescribed by it and the National Council of Educational Research and Training as far as possible.