Above: A meeting of a parliamentary committee. These panels monitor government action/Photo: iihr.res.in

In order to ensure greater accountability of the government to Parliament, subject-based committees were formed three decades back to examine the activities of various ministries

By Vivek K Agnihotri

A routine annual ritual in the Indian parliamentary system has suddenly acquired the dimensions of a debate. And soon enough, in a politically surcharged atmosphere, it reached a flashpoint of sorts. The seeds of the controversy were sown during the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha itself—June-August 2019—when a large number of bills were passed by both Houses without ostensible reference to the Parliamentary Standing Committees.

First, there was a hue and cry about delay in constituting Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs). They were finally notified on September 14, 2019, i.e. approximately three and a half months after the 17th Lok Sabha was formed. This was followed by muted protests about the Congress, the largest Opposition party, being denied the traditional chairmanship of some key Standing Committees such as finance and external affairs.

The questions that arise are: What are these DRSCs? What are their functions? How are they constituted? How are their chairpersons appointed?

The need for ensuring greater accountability of the government to Parliament was being felt in India for a long time. Several proposals in this regard were considered from time to time. One such proposal was to further strengthen the Committee system in order to make parliamentary scrutiny more extensive and effective. Accordingly, three subject-based committees—on agriculture, science and technology and environment and forests—were created in 1989. They were mandated to examine the activities of the concerned ministries. The success of these Committees led to expansion of the system. In April 1993, 17 DRSCs came into being, covering under their jurisdiction all the central ministries. In July 2004, the number of DRSCs was increased from 17 to 24.

Successive governments have sought to ensure that all members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, excluding ministers, are accommodated in one or the other Committee. Thus, originally, when the number of Committees was 17, each one of them had 45 members. When the number of Committees increased to 24, the number of members in each was reduced to 31. Further, as the ratio of total number of members in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is approximately 2:1, each committee has 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. Apart from the ministers, who are ineligible to be appointed members of these Committees, occasionally some of the senior members of certain political parties choose to abstain from being nominated to these Committees due to multifarious engagements, indifferent health, etc. Occasionally, some members do double duty and sit on more than one Committee.

The term of the members is one year. DRSCs are, therefore, notionally reconstituted every year. But a mini overhaul takes place after the Rajya Sabha biennial elections and a major reconstitution after every Lok Sabha election. Reconstitution after the Lok Sabha polls is a long-drawn-out consultative process with political parties in Parliament to provide them proportional representation and choice of ministry/department, as far as possible.

Out of the 24 committees, eight are serviced by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and 16 by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Accordingly, eight committees are chaired by members of the Rajya Sabha and 16 by members of the Lok Sabha. The chairpersons of these committees are appointed by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha and the Speaker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be. The process of nominating members and deciding on the allotment of chairmanship of committees gets complicated on account of the large number of parties. For this purpose, the minister for parliamentary affairs holds informal consultations with the leaders of major political parties. The entire exercise takes up to three months or more.

Thus the whole exercise of nomination of members on these committees as well as appointment of their chairpersons is based on a broad consensus, arrived at through behind the scene parleys among major parties. Hence, the question of a party being denied membership or chairmanship of a particular committee is not really material.

As regards the functions of these DRSCs, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha and the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) make identical provisions. The main functions of these Committees are considering the Demands for Grants of the concerned ministries/departments and to examine some of their Bills referred to them by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be. While these Committees are free to look into various aspects of the functioning of the ministries/departments allocated to them, they cannot consider matters of their day-to-day administration.

As far as consideration of Demands for Grants is concerned, after the general discussion on the budget in the Houses is over, the Houses are adjourned for a period of about four weeks in order to enable the Committees to consider the Demands for Grants of the concerned ministries/departments. The deliberations of the Committees are held on the basis of the questions sent by them to the concerned ministries/departments and the replies received thereto as well as the oral evidence of the officers. It is an iterative exercise. With regard to examination of the Bills, Committees consider only such Bills introduced in either of the Houses as are referred to them by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, Lok Sabha, as the case may be.

Every matter considered by a DRSC ends with a report, which is placed in both the Houses. The reports in respect of Demands for Grants form the basis for the detailed discussion on the budget proposals of the ministries/departments, which are taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha after the recess.

However, according to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of both the Houses, these reports “have a persuasive value” and are “treated as considered advice given by the Committee”. This is particularly so in respect of the reports relating to the Bills. Thus, there have been instances when after a Bill was reported by a DRSC, it was referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for further consideration. For example: The Trade Marks Bill, 1995 and the Lok Pal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011.

The Committee system of the Indian Parliament does not begin or end with DRSCs. There are a large number of other Standing Committees, some of which are joint committees of the two Houses, while others are independent committees of the two Houses. In addition, there are ad hoc committees too.

The wheels of Parliament may move slowly, but they grind fine.

—The writer is former Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha