SC to hear suo motu case on NCERT book chapter on judiciary on Thursday

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Thursday a suo motu case over the "objectionable" statements about the judiciary in NCERT textbooks.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi will hear the case titled 'In Re: Social Science Textbook For Grade-8 (part-2) Published by NCERT and Ancillary Issues'.

This assumes significance as the CJI on Wednesday strongly objected to a chapter on judicial corruption in NCERT's Class 8 curriculum, saying that nobody on earth will be allowed to defame the judiciary and taint its integrity.

After facing the apex court's ire, the NCERT pulled the Class 8 textbook from its website with sources saying the government has not taken kindly to the inclusion of the controversial topic in the book.

 

Earlier in the day, the top court took cognizance of the "objectionable" statements about 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.