New Delhi, Feb 25 Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday strongly objected to a chapter on judicial corruption in the NCERT's Class 8 curriculum, saying that nobody on earth will be allowed to defame the judiciary and taint its integrity.
A three-judge bench comprising the CJI and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took suo motu cognizance of the "objectionable" statements about the judiciary in NCERT textbooks after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, alongside Abhishek Singhvi, mentioned the matter for urgent consideration.
The NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) social science textbooks for Class 8 say corruption, a massive backlog of cases, and the lack of an adequate number of judges are among the challenges faced by the judicial system
A section titled "corruption in the judiciary" in the new textbooks 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.
"We are very disturbed as members of this institution to find that children of Class 8 are being taught about corruption in the judiciary. It is part of the NCERT book. We have great stake in the institution… it (the chapter) is entirely scandalous. We have the copies of the book," Sibal said.
“I can assure you all that I am fully aware of this,” the CJI said, adding that he received various calls and messages and many high court judges were "perturbed".
When Sibal hoped the bench would take suo motu cognizance, the CJI said, “Wait for a day. This is definitely concerning the entire institution. The bar and the bench are perturbed. Every stakeholder in the system is really perturbed. I am receiving a lot of calls and messages. There are judges of the high courts who are perturbed.”
The CJI told Sibal he had already passed an order taking suo motu cognizance of the issue.
“I will not allow anyone on earth to taint the integrity of the institution and defame the institution. At any cost, I will not permit it. Howsoever high it may be, the law will take its course. I know how to deal with it," a visibly irked CJI said.
Singhvi raised the issue of the NCERT adopting a selective approach and said it presumed that “there was no corruption elsewhere. There was not a word about corruption in bureaucracy, politics, public life and other institutions”.
"It seems to be a very calculated and deep-rooted measure to... we don't want to say anything more... I am aware and I have done my duty," the CJI said and thanked the lawyers for raising the issue.
Justice Bagchi referred to the basic structure doctrine and said "constitutional integrity to the basic structure is missing in the contents of the textbook".
