February 26, 2026 : Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Thursday raised strong objections to references to judicial corruption in the National Council of Educational Research and Training Class 8 social science textbook, stating that the integrity of the judiciary cannot be allowed to be defamed.

A three-judge Bench comprising the CJI, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi took suo motu cognisance of the issue after senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi mentioned the matter for urgent consideration.

The textbook identifies corruption, pendency of cases and shortage of judges as key challenges facing the judicial system. The Bench observed that the issue concerns the institution as a whole. Justice Bagchi further noted that key constitutional concepts such as constitutional integrity and the basic structure doctrine were absent from the relevant discussion in the textbook.