How many Parliamentary Committees India has & how do they work?

All About the parliamentary Committees, its types, powers, significance, and benefits.

Parliamentary Committees are an instrument of Parliament for its own effective functioning. These committees are platforms for threadbare discussion on a proposed law.

Types of committees?

2. 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. Once the Bill is disposed of, that select committee ceases to exist. Some standing committees are departmentally related.
3. 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.

Powers:

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).

Significance:

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. Parliament is not bound by the recommendations of committees.

Work & Processing

• Support Parliament’s work.
• Examine ministerial budgets, consider Demands for Grants, analyze legislation and scrutinize the government’s working.
• Examine Bills referred to by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, Lok Sabha.
• Consideration of Annual Reports.
• Consideration of national basic long term policy documents presented to the House and referred to the Committee by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, Lok Sabha.

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Advantages of having such committees:

• The deliberations and scrutiny by committees ensure that Parliament is able to fulfill some of its constitutional obligations in a politically charged environment.
• They also help in obtaining public feedback and building political consensus on contentious issues.
• They help develop expertise in subjects, and enable consultation with independent experts and stakeholders.
• The committees perform their functions without the cloud of political positioning and populist opinion.
• These committees allow the views of diverse stakeholders.
• They function throughout the year.
• They also offer an opportunity for detailed scrutiny of bills being piloted by the government.
• They increase efficiency and the expertise of Parliament.
• Their reports allow for informed debate in Parliament.

How can these committees be made more effective?

1. Parliamentary committees don’t have dedicated subject-wise research support available. The knowledge gap is partially bridged by expert testimony from the government and other stakeholders. Their work could be made more effective if the committees had full-time, sector-specific research staff.

2. The national commission to review the working of the Constitution has recommended that in order to strengthen the committee system, research support should be made available to them.

3. Currently, the rules of Parliament don’t require every bill to be referred to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny. While this allows the government greater flexibility and the ability to speed up legislative business, it comes at the cost of ineffective scrutiny by the highest law-making body. Mandatory scrutiny of all bills by parliamentary committees would ensure better planning of the legislative business.

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