The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo motu notice of content in the Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbook that refers to corruption in the judiciary. The court said the matter was serious and raised “grave concerns”.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, heard the issue after senior advocate Kapil Sibal pointed out that students in Class 8 were being taught about corruption in the judiciary. He said this was deeply troubling.
‘I will not allow anybody to defame the institution,’ says CJI Kant
The Chief Justice said that he would not allow the institution to be defamed and that legal action would follow. The CJI said, “Please wait for a few days. Bar and Bench all are perturbed. All high court judges are perturbed. I will take up the matter suo motu. I will not allow anybody to defame the institution. Law will take its course.”
He added that, as head of the judiciary, he had taken note of the issue and suggested that the matter appeared to be a deliberate attempt to harm the institution’s image.
Justice Bagchi also remarked that parts of the textbook “seemed to go against the basic structure of the Constitution itself”.
The debate over ‘corruption in judiciary’
A report by The Indian Express stated that a Class 8 textbook brought out by the NCERT includes a section on corruption in the judiciary. This topic appears in a chapter that explains the role of the judiciary in society.
The chapter reportedly mentions corruption at different levels of the judicial system. It also talks about the heavy backlog of cases. The reasons listed include too few judges, lengthy and complex legal procedures, and weak infrastructure. These issues are described as some of the key challenges facing the courts.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal brought this matter to the attention of the Supreme Court of India. He said that teaching young students about corruption in the judiciary is very worrying and added that he was raising the issue on behalf of the legal community.
Chief Justice Surya Kant informed the court that he had already taken note of the matter. He said that, as the head of the institution, he had fulfilled his responsibility by acting on it. He also suggested that the issue appeared to be a planned attempt to target the judiciary, but chose not to elaborate further.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi also criticised the NCERT. He questioned why the focus was placed specifically on judicial corruption, pointing out that problems exist in other areas as well, and suggested that this selective attention was troubling.