The meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh approved the bill which provides a mechanism for enquiring into complaints against the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and lays down judicial standards and requires the judges to declare their assets and liabilities, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mrs Ambika Soni told reporters.

She said under this any complaint against a judge would be referred to a scrutiny committee, comprising three judges which would be forwarded to a five-member Judicial Oversight Committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge, comprising of a Supreme Court Judge, a Chief Justice of a High Court, the Attorney General and one eminent person nominated by the President which after investigating it can refer the matter to the President for taking action against the judge.

“The bill was formulated after the government held consultations with all sections of society and took the judiciary into confidence,” Mrs Soni said.

She said the move to bring this legislation was because at present there is no legal provision for dealing with complaints filed by the public against the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

The minister said it was felt that such a legislation was needed to address the growing concerns regarding the need to ensure greater accountability of the higher judiciary by bringing in more transparency and strengthen the credibility and independence of the judiciary.

The Cabinet also cleared the Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) for non-gazetted railway employees estimated to cost about Rs 1065.42 crore and covering about 12.92 lakh personnel with the payment being for 77 days and making it the highest PLB ever made by the Railways.

She said the cabinet also approved an expenditure not exceeding Rs 3,000 crore in the 11th Plan Period for setting up 13 Central Universities and taking over and conversion of three State Universities into Central Universities to increase access and enhance the quality of higher education.

The Cabinet also cleared the proposal of the Department of Public Enterprises to the effect that Central Vigilance Officers (CVOs) and other officers on deputation to the Vigilance Departments of CPSEs maybe allowed the option of electing to draw either the pay in the scale of the CPSE concerned or pay in the parent cadre plus deputation allowance and personal pay, if any.

It also approved the grant of Central share upto to 90% of the project cost for the computerization of commercial taxes administration under Mission Mode Project for the North Eastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Meghalaya.

The cabinet also cleared the proposal for releasing 100% of the project cost to Union Territories without legislature through Department of Revenue to expedite implementation of project in the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.