'Won’t allow judiciary’s defamation': SC pulls up NCERT on new book, CJI takes suo motu cognizance

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took serious exception to Class 8 NCERT test book containing reference to corruption in judiciary.A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant took suo motu cognizance on the matter and said that he would not "allow anyone on earth to defame judiciary."This comes after a newly introduced NCERT social science textbook for class 8 outlined key challenges facing country's judicial system, including corruption, a heavy backlog of cases and an inadequate number of judges.The revised chapter, titled: ‘The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society’, expands beyond explaining the structure of courts and access to justice to discuss systemic issues that affect the functioning of the judiciary. Earlier editions of the textbook primarily focused on the organisation and role of courts. One section of the new book addresses corruption within the judicial system and its impact on access to justice, particularly for economically weaker sections.“People do experience corruption at various levels of the judiciary. For the poor and the disadvantaged, this can worsen the issue of access to justice. Hence, efforts are constantly being made at the State and Union levels to build faith and increase transparency in the judicial system, including through the use of technology, and to take swift and decisive action against instances of corruption wherever they may arise,” the chapter states.

The textbook also presents data on the scale of pending cases across courts. It estimates that about 81,000 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, around 62.40 lakh in high courts, and approximately 4.70 crore in district and subordinate courts.