CJI says judiciary cannot earn public trust by shielding itself from scrutiny

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant reiterated on September 14, 2026, that the judiciary cannot garner public trust through shielding itself from scrutiny. He alluded to the Supreme Court's intervening in the NCERT Class 8 textbook controversy, where it objected to references to 'judicial corruption' and termed the depiction of the judiciary as "reckless, irresponsible, motivated, contemptuous" with an aim to bias young students.

Initially, the court order was to withdraw the textbook en masse, but the court later replaced the chapter with an updated curriculum and recalled harsher findings against academicians involved. At the 6th Ram Jethmalani Memorial Lecture, Kant emphasized that "institutions do not stay clean by being shielded from scrutiny." He argued that a court cannot earn public trust by being liked or by delivering the outcomes people wanted.

Instead, trust is earned when the people who lost, despite wanting a different result, still believe the process was fair. Kant highlighted that transparency in a court involves making the reasoning behind decisions accessible to anyone who cares to examine them, including those the decision goes against.