Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!
SHARE:
Parliamentary Committee System
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- What Parliament does: In India, the Parliament has broadly two functions, which are lawmaking and oversight of the executive branch of the government. The Parliament is an embodiment of the people’s will and parliamentary committees are an instrument of Parliament for its own effective functioning.
- Committees: Over the years, the Indian Parliament has increasingly taken recourse to the parliamentary committee system. However, data show that in the last few years there has been a gradual marginalisation of the committee system. Hence, for the sake of upholding the Parliament’s primary role i.e debate, discussion and deliberation, there is need to take necessary reforms in the parliamentary committee system.
- Genesis & Types: As is the case with several other practices of Indian parliamentary democracy, the institution of Parliamentary Committees also has its origins in the British Parliament. In independent India, the first Public Accounts Committee was constituted in April 1950.
- Constitutional Provisions - Parliamentary committees draw their authority from Article 105 (on privileges of Parliament members) and Article 118 (on Parliament’s authority to make rules for regulating its procedure and conduct of business).
- Types - Most committees are ‘standing’ as their existence is uninterrupted and usually reconstituted on an annual basis; some are ‘select’ committees formed for a specific purpose, for instance, to deliberate on a particular bill. In 1993, 17 Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs), later increased to 24, were constituted in the Parliament. These committees drew members from both Houses roughly in proportion to the strength of the political parties in the Houses..
- Allocation of Business - The chair uses her discretion to refer a matter to a parliamentary committee but this is usually done in consultation with leaders of parties in the House. The practice of regularly referring bills to committees began in 1989 after government departments started forming their own standing committees. Prior to that, select committees or joint committees of the houses were only set up to scrutinise in detail some very important bills.
- Important Committees in Finance: Financial control is a critical tool for Parliament’s authority over the executive; hence finance committees are considered to be particularly powerful. The three financial committees are the Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.
- Significance: They are envisaged to be the face of Parliament in a set of inter- related departments and ministries. They are assigned the task of looking into the demands for grants of the ministries/departments concerned, to examine Bills pertaining to them, to consider their annual reports, and to look into their long-term plans and report to Parliament. Committee reports are usually exhaustive and provide authentic information on matters related to governance. Bills that are referred to committees are returned to the House with significant value addition. Besides the standing committees, the Houses of Parliament set up ad hoc committees to enquire and report on specific subjects that are assigned the task of studying a Bill closely and reporting back to the House. These Committees are smaller units of MPs from both Houses, across political parties and they function throughout the year.The Parliamentary committees are not bound by the populistic demands that generally act as hindrance in working of parliament.
- Gradual Marginalisation: According to data by PRS Legislative Research, while 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were referred to DRSCs concerned, this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha. Apart from the DRSCs, there are negligible bills referred to Select Committees of the Houses or Joint Parliamentary Committees. The last Bill referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee was The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, in 2015.
- Some of the most momentous Acts of Parliament in recent years such as the overhaul of Article 370 that revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided the State into two Union Territories were not processed by any House committee.
- Recently, even after popular protests against the three Bills related to agricultural produce and the three labour Bills, that definitely deserved to be scrutinised by Select Committees of the Houses, were passed by the government only by using the majority.
- Other issues affecting the functioning of the committees are low attendance of MPs at meetings; too many ministries under a committee; norms not followed by most political parties while nominating MPs to committees; and the constitution of DRSCs for a year leaves very little time for specialisations.
- Summary: Given the increasing complexity in matters of economy and technological advancement there is a need for setting up new parliamentary committees. As an example, the Standing Committee on National Economy to provide analysis of the national economy with resources for advisory expertise, data gathering and research facilities. Major reports of all Committees should be discussed in Parliament especially in cases where there is disagreement between a Committee and the government. The recommendations of the PACs should be accorded greater weight and they must be treated as the conscience-keepers of the nation in financial matters.
- Learning: The primary role of Parliament is deliberation, discussion and reconsideration, the hallmarks of any democratic institution. However, Parliament deliberates on matters that are complex, and therefore needs technical expertise to understand such matters better. Committees help with this by providing a forum where Members can engage with domain experts and government officials during the course of their study. By minimising their role, Indian democracy itself is being compromised with.
COMMENTS