New Delhi: The Indian Cabinet has extended the term of the e-Committee for monitoring the implementation of the ongoing e-courts project till to February 2009, or till the time its work is completed.

 The e-courts project in India is aimed at interlinking all the courts across the country to help litigants have faster access to authorised documents.

As per the project, National Informatics Centre (NIC) has already provided laptops to 12,155 judges across the country and is presently in the process of installing nearly 13,000 laser printers for the judges.

The Cabinet also approved the modification to enable the Chief justice of India (CJI) appoint a retired Chief Justice or a retired Judge of any High Court as the Chairman of the committee.

The modification gives the CJI a free hand in selection and appointment of members and mandates that they shall be appointed either on deputation or on contract basis.

According to the Cabinet decision, the emoluments of members shall not exceed the total emoluments as per the scale of pay provided for deputations subject to the condition that terms and conditions of appointment will be finalised in consultation with the Department of Expenditure.
—iGovernment Bureau