NEW DELHI: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Wednesday speedily moved to drop references of “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” from its new Class VIII social science textbook after drawing fire from the Supreme Court over what a bench led by CJI Surya Kant called a “deep-rooted conspiracy to defame” the judiciary.In a late-night development, the board said it has put on hold the distribution of the newly released textbook after “inappropriate textual material and error of judgement” were noticed in the chapter on the judiciary. It said the issue was flagged both internally and by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the education ministry.“Judges of the constitutional and district courts are perturbed by this. I have taken suo motu cognisance of the issue. I will not allow anyone on earth to defame the institution or taint its integrity. Whosoever and however high it may be, I know how to deal with it,” a visibly upset CJI told senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, who flagged the issue at the commencement of judicial work at 10.30am. The advocates told the bench of CJI Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that teaching students of impressionable mind about corruption in judiciary will bring the institution to disrepute and requested the apex court to take cognisance of the matter.The suo motu case has been listed for hearing on Thursday.

I have been receiving hundreds of calls and messages from citizens, judges and judicial officers expressing serious concern,” said CJI Surya Kant.Facing fire from the judiciary, sources in govt were contrite. “The controversial section should not have been written,” said one of them, adding that textbooks should focus on “inspirational aspects” rather than highlight institutional shortcomings in isolation. The inclusion was “inappropriate” and should not have found its way into a school curriculum, sources said of the book, which, as per protocol, must have gone through layers of vetting before being cleared for publishing.Justice Bagchi referred to the basic structure doctrine and said “constitutional integrity to the basic structure is missing in the structure of the textbook”.Sibal said the textbook could have devoted the chapter to working of the judiciary, educated children about the challenges faced by it in deciding cases, and narrated how the institution has largely enjoyed public faith and confidence.Flagging what he called selective targeting of the judiciary, Singhvi said there is no mention of corruption elsewhere, in politics, bureaucracy or business in the textbook. “Is it a presumption that there is no corruption there? We know the state of affairs in politics, bureaucracy and business,” he said, leading the CJI to suspect a “deep-rooted conspiracy” to malign the judiciary.NCERT has called an internal meeting to review the chapter in the social science textbook titled ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’. The e-version of the book was pulled down from the council’s website, though several copies have been downloaded. NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani did not respond to calls, while another senior official declined to comment, citing the matter as sub judice.