‘NCERT teaching on judicial corruption’: CJI launches new book; Somotu found guilty of defamation | India News

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday made a serious exception to the NCERT test manual for Class 8 which contains content on judicial corruption.A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant acknowledged the matter and said he would not “allow anyone on earth to defame the judiciary”.This comes after NCERT’s new social science textbook for grade 8 outlines the major challenges facing the country’s judicial system, including corruption, huge backlog of cases and insufficient number of judges.The revised chapter, titled “The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society,” not only explains the structure of the courts and access to justice, but also discusses systemic issues that affect the functioning of the judiciary. Early versions of the textbook focused primarily on the organization and role of courts. Part of the new book discusses corruption within the justice system and its impact on access to justice, particularly for economically disadvantaged groups.“People do experience corruption at all levels of the justice system. For the poor and vulnerable, this can exacerbate access to justice problems. Therefore, there are ongoing efforts at the state and federal levels to build trust and increase transparency in the justice system, including through the use of technology, and to take swift and decisive action to combat any instances of corruption that may arise,” the chapter states.The textbook also provides data on the size of cases pending in each court. It is estimated that there are about 81,000 pending cases in the Supreme Court, 6.24 million cases pending in the High Courts and 4.70 million pending cases in the district and subordinate courts.