3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 25, 2026 11:39 AM IST
A day after The Indian Express reported that the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) new Social Science textbook for Class 8 includes a section on “corruption in the judiciary”, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Wednesday took serious exception to it and said he “will not allow anyone to defame the institution”.
“I will not allow anyone to defame the institution. I know how to deal with it,” the CJI said, after senior advocates A M Singhvi and Kapil Sibal raised the issue during mentioning hours.
While Singhvi said it was a case of selective portrayal, Sibal said, “We are deeply disturbed, Class 8 students being taught that judiciary is corrupt.”
The CJI said he had received many messages about it. “I have taken cognisance of it. It seems to be a deliberate and calculated measure to…I don’t want to say anything more…,” he said.
The Class 8 chapter lists “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” and “massive backlog…on account of multiple reasons, such as a lack of an adequate number of judges, complicated legal procedures, and poor infrastructure” as among the “challenges” faced by the judicial system.
The section states that judges are bound by a code of conduct that governs not only their behaviour in court, but also how they conduct themselves outside it. It refers to the judiciary’s internal mechanism to maintain accountability, and an “established procedure for receiving complaints through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)”, adding that over 1,600 such complaints were received between 2017 and 2021.
“In cases where the allegations are serious, the Parliament can take action and remove a judge by passing a motion of impeachment. Such a motion is considered only after a proper inquiry, during which the judge is given a fair opportunity to present their side of the case,” the section adds.
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“Nevertheless, 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,” it further states.
