Let me begin by agreeing with the Supreme Court that it is a bad idea for Indian schoolchildren to grow up believing that our justice system is corrupt. They may have seen those pictures of floor to ceiling piles of cash, some half burned, that were found last year in a judge’s garden shed in Delhi and asked their parents questions. And their parents may have prevaricated. Some truths are too harsh for innocent minds. When they are older, they will deal more maturely with the realities of our justice system but to put these things into textbooks is a transgression. At least in the eyes of the Supreme Court. Who are we to question the ‘majesty’ of justice and the men who deliver it?

Rarely have I seen our honorable judges respond with as much fury as they did last week when this newspaper drew attention to a new textbook that in a section on ‘corruption in the judiciary’ said bad things about judges. The textbook has now been removed from school curriculums, and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been severely rapped on the knuckles, so the Chief Justice need no longer worry about the ‘sanctity of the judicial office’ eroding in the eyes of the public.

The Supreme Court has other things to worry about. Of these the two most important in my ever-humble opinion is the impossibility for ordinary Indians to seek........

© Indian Express