Two days Workshop-cum-Training on e-Courts Project was held on 13th and 14th March 2012 at Shimla for all DIOs, Group Heads, Network Support, Administrative Section and NIC High Court Shimla. The workshop was very well attended from within NIC Himachal Pradesh as well as NIC Headquarters.

Dr. B.K. Gairola, Director General, NIC inaugurated the workshop through Video Conferencing and interacted with the participants to share his views about the Role and Responsibilities of NIC with changing technology.

Dr. Y.K. Sharma, Deputy Director General addressed the participants through VC in the afternoon session on first day. Dr. Sharma informed the DIOs about the concept of virtual servers being set up in the NIC Data Centre at New Delhi.

Then, Sh. CLM Reddy, DDG informed the participants about the importance of the eCourts Project, status of eCourts Projects in Himachal Pradesh and its implementation aspects. Sh. JP Kukreti, Sr. TD noted the issues related to SW aspects of the eCourts Project and provision of support manpower for customization of the CIS Application Software, including addition of 30 web-based services for various stakeholders. The NIC Team from headquarters demonstrated the CIS Application in detail during the workshop. Sh. D.C. Misra, Sr.TD and Sh. Vinay Thakur, Sr. TD also participated through VC and interacted with the DIOs on Project implementation aspects.

Sh. A. Mohan, DDG and Mrs. Junu Kailey, DDG Admin addressed the DIOs and State Centre officials and assured to provide full support in the implementation of the Project in the State. The DIOs assured to provide necessary hand-holding under the Project so that Himachal Pradesh becomes the first state to fully roll-out the CIS application in all the District and Taluka Courts of Himachal Pradesh.

Earlier, Sh. Neeraj Goel, TD NIC at the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, welcomed the new SIO, Dr. Saurabh Gupta and highlighted various aspects of the e-Courts Project and apprised the participants about various activities undertaken by NIC in the computerisation of Courts in the State. As on date, out of 108 Courts covered in the current phase, infrastructure has been established at 92 Courts, except 16 Courts which are SNR and the CIS Application Software Training and Roll-out has also taken place. About 65,000 pending cases data has been fed, which is approximately 50 percent of the cases for which funds have been received.

As the focus of this workshop was on WAN Connectivity for all the Courts and Service Initiation, Dr. Saurabh Gupta, SIO arranged a special meeting with Chief General Manager Telecommunications, BSNL Himachal Pradesh, during the workshop and sorted-out the long pending issue of providing leased line connectivity to the Courts which shall now be taken-up with NIC Hqs. The BSNL has agreed to provide LL connectivity to all Taluka level courts also from NICNET.

The DIOs were briefed about their role and responsibility in the project and the steps which needs to be initiated by them for ensuring timely start of service delivery to the stakeholders. Some of the DIOs made presentations on locally developed and implemented projects, so that other Districts could make use of these SW.

Dr. Saurabh Gupta, SIO NIC Himachal Pradesh, took special interest in organizing the two-days workshop at Shimla by inviting all DIOs and including the officers from NIC State Centre in the workshop. Sh. Neeraj Goel, TD, High Court and his team of officers organized the workshop in a professional manner and were suitably supported by the Network Group in arranging VCs during the workshop.