Departmentally related standing committee

Also called: DRSC · Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 6 "The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"

Meaning

A departmentally related standing committee (DRSC) is a permanent committee of 31 MPs from both Houses. Each DRSC watches over a set of ministries or departments, such as Home Affairs or Finance. It examines their budget requests, the bills it is sent, their annual reports and their long-term policies [2]. There are 24 DRSCs today. The first 17 were set up in 1993, and the system was expanded to 24 in 2004 [2].

DRSCs matter because Parliament meets for only a few weeks each year. These committees are the main way MPs check the work of ministries in detail, all through the year.

Explanation

How DRSCs came about

• Why committees are needed:
• The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cannot study every bill and budget line by line.

• So they give the detailed work to small groups of MPs. These groups report back to the House.

• How DRSCs grew:

Year	Step
1989	3 subject committees set up: Agriculture; Science and Technology; Environment and Forests
1993	17 DRSCs set up [2]
2004	Reorganised and expanded to 24 [2]

• NCERT trap: NCERT says "since 1983 … over twenty such committees". The correct facts are 1993 and 24.

Composition

• Members: 31 in each committee. 21 come from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha [2].
• Who picks them:
• The Speaker names the Lok Sabha members.

• The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha names the Rajya Sabha members.

• Who runs them:

• 16 DRSCs are serviced (staffed and run) by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

• 8 are serviced by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

• Term: one year.

• Ministers cannot be members.
• DRSCs exist to check the ministries.
• So the people being checked are kept out of the body that checks them.

What DRSCs examine

1. Demands for grants. These are each ministry's requests for money in the Union Budget. The DRSC reports on them before the Lok Sabha votes on them [2].
2. Bills of their ministries. A DRSC can take up a bill only when the Speaker or the Chairman refers it [2]. It cannot pick a bill on its own.
3. Annual reports of the ministries.
4. Long-term national policy documents.
5. The working of departments and government schemes [2].

Limits

• No day-to-day administration. A DRSC cannot look into the daily running of a ministry.
• Advisory only. Its reports are recommendations. The government and the House do not have to accept them.
• Short, changing membership. Members serve one-year terms and change often, so they build up less expertise.
• Weak support. Attendance is low, and there is little research staff.
• Referral is optional. Bills reach a committee only when the presiding officer refers them, so many bills skip committee study.

In the Constitution and practice

• Not named in the Constitution. DRSCs come from the Rules of Procedure of each House.
• Article 118 lets each House make its own Rules of Procedure. DRSCs are created under these rules.

• Article 105 gives committee members the same parliamentary privileges (special legal protections, such as freedom of speech in Parliament) as MPs speaking in the House.

• Who controls them: the Speaker (Lok Sabha) and the Chairman (Rajya Sabha). They name the members and decide which bills to refer.

• How DRSCs work in practice:
• They meet behind closed doors, away from TV cameras. This lets MPs from different parties agree more easily.
• Experts and members of the public can give evidence.

• Many changes they suggest are later added to bills.

• Fewer bills are sent to committees. The figures below count bills sent to DRSCs, select committees and joint committees together.

Lok Sabha	Share of bills referred to committees
14th (2004–09)	60%
15th (2009–14)	71%
16th (2014–19)	about 26%
17th (2019–24)	16%, the lowest of the last four Lok Sabhas [8]

• In the 17th Lok Sabha, 4 bills went to joint committees. One bill, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, went to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee [8].
• Recent trend: important bills now often go to one-time joint committees instead of DRSCs. Examples:
• The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 [6]
• The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, on simultaneous elections [5]

• The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025 [3][4]

• Monsoon Session 2025: 5 of the 13 bills introduced went to select or joint committees (PRS).

Don't confuse with

• Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC): a JPC is ad hoc (temporary). It is formed by a motion in one House, the other House agrees, and it ends once it reports on one bill or inquiry. A DRSC is permanent and covers a fixed set of ministries.
• Consultative committees: these are set up by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and chaired by the minister. They are not parliamentary committees. They do not report to the House and cannot call witnesses. Ministers cannot sit on a DRSC at all.
• 1989 subject committees: these were only 3 trial committees (Agriculture; Science and Technology; Environment and Forests). They came before DRSCs. They were not the 1993 DRSC system.
• Select committee: a select committee is drawn from one House only, such as the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on the Surrogacy Bill [8]. A DRSC has members from both Houses (21 + 10).

Prelims Hooks

• DRSCs: 17 set up in 1993, expanded to 24 in 2004 [2]. Trap: NCERT's "1983" is wrong.
• Each DRSC has 31 members: 21 Lok Sabha + 10 Rajya Sabha [2]. Term is one year. Ministers cannot be members.
• Servicing: 16 by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and 8 by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The Speaker names the Lok Sabha members and the Chairman names the Rajya Sabha members.
• DRSCs examine demands for grants (before the Lok Sabha vote), referred bills, annual reports and long-term policy documents. They do not examine day-to-day administration [2].
• Legal base: the Rules of Procedure made under Article 118, not a separate article creating DRSCs. Members get privileges under Article 105.
• Bills referred to committees: 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha → 16% in the 17th Lok Sabha, the lowest of the last four [8].

Mains Points

• Fewer referrals weaken law-making.
• Referrals fell from 60–71% (14th and 15th Lok Sabhas) to 16% (17th Lok Sabha) [8].
• So more bills pass without expert evidence or public input, and more laws end up being challenged in court.

• Reform: make it compulsory to refer every bill to a DRSC, except money bills and urgent bills.

• DRSCs are Parliament's main check on the executive between sessions.

• Their strengths: they work across party lines, meet behind closed doors and hear experts.
• Their limits: reports are only advisory, one-year terms are short, attendance is low and research staff is thin.

• Reforms: longer terms, permanent research staff, and a rule that the government must reply to committee reports within a fixed time.

• DRSCs versus one-time JPCs.

• Major bills now often go to ad hoc JPCs. One example is the Waqf JPC, which received over 97 lakh memoranda (written comments) [7].
• In a JPC, the ruling side has the majority and shapes the report.
• Sending bills to the permanent DRSCs as a regular practice would make careful study a routine habit, not a one-off choice.

Related concepts

• Joint Parliamentary Committee
• Business Advisory Committee
• Committee on Private Members' Bills and Resolutions
• Committee on Petitions
• Committee on Government Assurances
• Committee on Subordinate Legislation
• Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
• Committee on Empowerment of Women
• Joint Committee on Offices of Profit
• Consultative committees

Read more

• Departmental committees, JPCs and other committees