• Parliament’s Standing Committees were constituted with BJP’s Bhartruhari Mahtab as chair of the key panel on Finance and Congress’s Shashi Tharoor at the helm of the panel on External Affairs.

• The department-related standing committees, which have representation from across party lines, act as “mini parliaments” and keep a tab on the functioning of various ministries.

• The notification of the committees was announced by a communique issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

Key points: 

• The Committee on Defence will be chaired by former Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh, while the panel on Home Affairs will be headed by BJP member Radha Mohan Das Agrawal.

• The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Committee on Defence. 

• Major BJP allies such as the TDP and Janata Dal (United) besides its partners in poll-bound Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena and NCP, will be heading one committee each.

• The lone NCP Lok Sabha member Sunil Tatkare will be heading the panel on Petroleum and Natural Gas and Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Appa Barne will helm the committee on Energy.

• JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha will be heading the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture while TDP’s Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy will chair the committee on Housing and Urban Affairs.

• Congress members Charanjit Singh Channi and Saptagiri Ulaka have been made chairpersons of the committees on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing; and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj respectively.

• DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi will chair the committees on Industry; and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution respectively.

• Of the total 24 department-related standing committees, BJP has got to chair 11, while its allies have got to lead four panels. 

• Congress leaders will helm four committees, followed by two each by DMK and Trinamool, and one by the Samajwadi Party.

• Former Union Minister Anurag Thakur and Rajiv Pratap Rudy have been given the chairmanships of the committees on Coal, Mines and Steel; and Water Resources respectively.

• BJP member Nishikant Dubey has been made the chairman of the Committee on Communications and Information Technology.

• In the previous Lok Sabha, Dubey had a running battle with Tharoor, who was the chair on the panel of Committee and IT. Tharoor was replaced as chair of the crucial committee in 2022.

• The committee on communications and IT has as members SP’s Jaya Bachchan, Shiv Sena-UBT’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, BJD’s Sushmit Patra and INC’s KTS Tulsi from the Upper House, as well as BJP MPs Anil Baluni, Kangana Ranaut and Poonam Madam, and TMC’s Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha.

• The Committee on Health will be chaired by SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, while Trinamool leaders Dola Sen and Kirti Azad will lead the panels on Commerce; and Chemicals and Fertilisers respectively.

• The Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice will be chaired by BJP's Brij Lal, a former director general of police of Uttar Pradesh. Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Mishra are members of the committee.

• BJP members Bhubaneswar Kalita and Basavraj Bommai will chair the committees on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change; and Labour respectively.

• The Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment will be chaired by BJP’s P.C. Mohan, while the panel on Railways will be led by C.M. Ramesh.

Parliamentary Committees 

The Parliament cannot give close attention to all the legislative and other matters before it. This is owing to the varied, complex and voluminous nature of the work. Hence, part of its work is transacted in Committees of the House, known as Parliamentary Committees. 

Parliamentary Committee means a Committee which:

• Is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker/Chairman.

• Works under the direction of Speaker/Chairman.

• Presents its report to the House or to the Speaker/Chairman.

• Has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha Secretariat Both Houses of Parliament have a similar committee structure, with a few exceptions. 

• The appointment, terms of office, functions and procedure of conducting business are regulated as per rules made by the two Houses under Article 118(1) of the Constitution.

By their nature, Parliamentary Committees are of two kinds:

1) Standing Committees: Standing Committees are permanent and regular committees, which are constituted from time to time in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. 

• The work of these Committees is of continuous nature. Among the Standing Committees, the three Financial Committees — Committees on Estimates, Public Accounts and Public Undertakings keep a tight eye over Government expenditure and performance. 

• While members of the Rajya Sabha are associated with Committees on Public Accounts and Public Undertakings, the members of the Committee on Estimates are drawn entirely from the Lok Sabha.

• Besides the three Financial Committees, there are 24 Department Related Standing Committees (DRSCs).

2) Ad hoc Committees: These are appointed for a specific purpose and they cease to exist when they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report. 

Ad hoc committees can be further divided into two categories:

i) Committees which are constituted from time to time, by either of the two Houses on a motion adopted in that behalf.

ii) Committees which are constituted by Speaker/Chairman to inquire into and report on specific subjects.

E.g., Committees on the Conduct of certain Members during President’s Address, Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme etc.

• Select or Joint Committees on Bills which are appointed to consider and report on a particular Bill. These Committees are distinguishable from the other ad hoc committees to the extent that they are concerned with Bills and the procedure to be followed by them as laid down in the Rules of Procedure and Directions by the Speaker/Chairman.

• Joint Parliamentary Committees are set up by a motion passed in one House and agreed to by the other House.

Importance of Parliamentary Committees

• The main purpose behind setting up these committees is to ensure the accountability of government to Parliament through more detailed consideration of measures in these Committees.

• These Committees have had an important impact on the general toning up of debates and efficiency of functioning of Parliamentary system.

• They offer an opportunity to the members of the House to have glimpse into the working of governments and understand the practical problems and constraints.

• Committees help with this by providing a forum where Members can engage with domain experts and government officials during the course of their study. 

• Committees also provide a forum for building consensus across political parties. The proceedings of the House during sessions are televised, and MPs are likely to stick to their party positions on most matters. 

• Committees have closed door meetings, which allows them to freely question and discuss issues and arrive at a consensus.

• Parliamentary committees investigate issues and bills proposed so that the Parliament can be well informed before making a decision of national importance.

• It increases the ability of Parliament to scrutinise government policies and make it accountable.

• The committees can make recommendations and amendments to the Bill. These are not binding on the Parliament.

• In the past, we have seen that scrutiny by committees has helped resolve significant issues in Bills. For instance, the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Bill which has been pending in the Rajya Sabha since 2013. The Bill has been examined by two Parliamentary Committees and has gone through a number of iterations. This has resulted in significant issues in the Bill getting addressed.

Concerns related to their functioning

• While Committees have substantially impacted Parliament’s efficacy in discharging its roles, there is still scope for strengthening the Committee system. 

• The rules do not require all Bills to be examined by a Committee. This leads to some Bills being passed without the advantage of a Committee scrutinising its technical details. 

• Recently, there has been a declining trend in the percentage of Bills being referred to a Committee. 

• In the 16th Lok Sabha, DRSCs examined 41 Bills, 331 Demands for Grants, 197 issues, and published 503 Action Taken Reports. 

• In the 15th Lok Sabha, 71 per cent of the Bills introduced were referred to Committees for examination, as compared to 27 per cent in the 16th Lok Sabha. So far in the 17th Lok Sabha no Bill has been referred to a Committee yet. 

• This raises concern over the diminishing importance of Parliamentary Committees and whether proper deliberations are taking place before the passage of various Bills.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)