The National Council of Educational Research and Training on Monday released a new Class 8 Social Science textbook that includes a section on corruption in the judiciary and highlights a massive backlog of cases as key challenges facing the judicial system.
In a chapter titled “The role of the judiciary in our society”, the book lists “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” and a “massive backlog” due to reasons such as inadequate numbers of judges, complicated legal procedures, and poor infrastructure.
According to The Indian Express, the textbook provides approximate figures for pending cases, stating there are about 81,000 cases in the Supreme Court, 62,40,000 in High Courts, and 4,70,00,000 in District and Subordinate Courts.
The earlier Class 8 textbook described the judiciary’s role, structure, and access to courts, and mentioned delays through the phrase “justice delayed is justice denied”, but did not refer to corruption.
The new section notes that judges are bound by a code of conduct and refers to internal accountability mechanisms and the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System, through which more than 1,600 complaints were received between 2017 and 2021. It explains that in serious cases, Parliament can remove a judge through impeachment after due inquiry.
The book also quotes former Chief Justice of India B R Gavai as saying in July 2025 that instances of corruption and misconduct negatively affect public confidence, and that transparency and accountability are essential to rebuilding trust.
It includes discussion prompts on electoral bonds and the Information Technology Act, citing Supreme Court rulings that struck down provisions on anonymous political funding and online speech restrictions as unconstitutional.
The new textbook has been developed in line with the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education.