Joint Parliamentary Committee

Also called: JPC · Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"

Meaning

A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) is a temporary (ad hoc) committee with members from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. It is set up to study one bill or to investigate one matter, and it ends once it submits its report.

It matters because it lets both Houses look closely at a hard issue together. JPCs have looked into big scandals such as Bofors and 2G, and into major recent bills such as the Waqf and 130th Amendment bills.

Explanation

How a JPC is formed

In order:

1. Motion in one House. One House passes a motion (a formal proposal put to vote) to set up the JPC.
2. The other House agrees. The other House concurs (agrees) and names its own members.
3. Seats are shared by party strength. Each party gets seats in proportion to its strength in the House.
4. Work and report. The committee studies the matter, hears witnesses and presents its report to Parliament.
5. The committee ends. Since it is ad hoc, the JPC stops existing once the report is submitted.

Two types of JPC

• Inquiry JPCs: set up to investigate a scandal. NCERT says a JPC may be set up to look into financial irregularities (misuse or mishandling of money).
• Bill JPCs: set up to study a bill in detail before Parliament votes on it. A JPC can also study a main bill together with its companion bills.

Powers and limits

• Privileges: under Article 105, JPC members get the same parliamentary privileges (special legal protections, such as freedom of speech in Parliament) as MPs on the floor of the House.
• The ruling side has a majority. Seats follow party strength, so the government side usually controls the final report.
• Dissent notes: Opposition members often attach dissent notes (written disagreement) to the report.
• The government decides whether a JPC is set up. A JPC needs a motion passed by the House, so Opposition demands for inquiry JPCs (for example, into a scam) are often refused.
• Reports are advisory. Parliament still decides what happens to the bill or issue.

In the Constitution and practice

• Legal base: the Constitution does not list JPCs by name.
• Article 118 lets each House make its own Rules of Procedure, and committees such as JPCs come from these rules.

• Article 105 gives committee members their privileges.

• Who sets it up: both Houses of Parliament, through a motion in one House that the other House agrees to.

• Inquiry JPCs:

Year	Subject
1987	Bofors gun deal
1992	Securities scam (Harshad Mehta)
2001	Stock market scam (Ketan Parekh)
2003	Pesticide residues in soft drinks
2011	2G spectrum allocation

• Bill JPCs:
• Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.
• Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024:
  • 31 members (21 Lok Sabha, 10 Rajya Sabha), chaired by Jagdambika Pal [5].
  • It received 97,27,772 memoranda (written comments from the public and groups) [6].
  • After it presented its report in the Lok Sabha, the bill was passed in 2025 [5][6].
• Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, on simultaneous elections (Lok Sabha and state assembly polls held together). It was examined together with the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 [4].

• Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, on removing ministers held in custody:

  • Who it covers: the Prime Minister, a Chief Minister or any minister at the Centre or in a state [3].
  • The test: the minister is accused of an offence punishable with 5 years or more in prison and is detained for 30 days in a row [3].
  • The result: the President or Governor removes the minister on advice. If that does not happen, the minister loses office automatically on the 31st day [3].
  • It went to one JPC together with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The JPC is chaired by Aparajita Sarangi (BJP, Lok Sabha) [2][3].

• Trend: in the 17th Lok Sabha, 4 bills went to joint committees [7]. Overall, only 16% of bills were sent to any committee, the lowest share of the last four Lok Sabhas [7].

Don't confuse with

• Departmentally related standing committees (DRSCs): DRSCs are permanent, with 31 members and a one-year term, and each one watches a group of ministries. A JPC is ad hoc and ends after its single report.
• Select Committee: a select committee comes from one House only. For example, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 went to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee [7]. A JPC has members from both Houses.
• Standing joint committees (SC/ST Welfare, Empowerment of Women, Offices of Profit): these also have members from both Houses, but they are permanent. A JPC is temporary.
• Consultative committees: these are set up by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and chaired by ministers. They are not parliamentary committees and cannot call witnesses. A JPC is a parliamentary committee that hears witnesses and reports to the House.

Prelims Hooks

• JPC = ad hoc. It is formed by a motion in one House that the other House concurs in, and it ends after its report.
• Inquiry JPCs, in order: Bofors 1987 → securities scam 1992 → stock market 2001 → soft drinks 2003 → 2G 2011.
• Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 JPC: 31 members (21 + 10), chaired by Jagdambika Pal [5]. It received over 97 lakh memoranda [6].
• 130th Amendment Bill, 2025 JPC: chaired by Aparajita Sarangi [2]. A minister detained for 30 days in a row for an offence punishable with 5 years or more loses office on the 31st day [3].
• 129th Amendment Bill, 2024 (simultaneous elections) was examined by a JPC together with the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 [4].
• Trap: a JPC is not a constitutional body. Committees come from the Rules of Procedure made under Article 118, and their members' privileges come from Article 105.

Mains Points

• JPCs as a tool of accountability, and their limits:
• Inquiry JPCs such as Bofors and 2G showed Parliament investigating the executive itself.
• But the ruling majority controls the report, and Opposition members are reduced to dissent notes.

• Since the government has to agree to the motion, demands for inquiry JPCs into scams are often refused. This weakens the JPC as a check on the government.

• Bill JPCs can bring public views into law-making:

• The Waqf JPC received over 97 lakh memoranda [6], which shows how a JPC can draw in public opinion.

• The JPCs on the 129th and 130th Amendment Bills deal with federalism and the presumption of innocence (a person counts as innocent until proven guilty). Both need careful scrutiny across party lines before Parliament votes [3][4].

• Falling committee scrutiny:

• Bills referred to committees fell from 60–71% in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas to 16% in the 17th Lok Sabha [7].
• Reform ideas: make committee referral compulsory for important bills (except money bills and urgent bills), and give JPC seats or dissent more weight so that reports are less one-sided.

Related concepts

• Departmentally related standing 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