Discuss the role of Departmentally Related Standing Committees in making executive agencies accountable, with reference to the recent recommendations on the NTA.

Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) were set up in 1993. There are now 24 of them, one for each group of ministries, and they examine Bills, budgets and policy issues [1]. Their 382nd Report on the National Testing Agency (NTA) shows how they make Parliament's oversight reach agencies that answer to no one in the House directly [2].

Role of DRSCs in executive accountability

• Continuous oversight: They examine how departments and schemes actually work, which a short floor debate cannot do [1].
• Evidence-based scrutiny: The Education DRSC took evidence from the Higher Education Secretary, the MoHFW Secretary, the NTA Chairperson and DG, and Dr. K. Radhakrishnan [2].
• Follow-up: Ministries must reply through Action Taken Reports, so an issue stays on the record after the news cycle moves on.

NTA case: how the committee filled accountability gaps

• Legal gap: The NTA was created by a Cabinet decision as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 [3]. The Committee seeks an "appropriate Parliamentary framework" for it [2].
• Capacity check: It found 23 of 39 posts filled (41% vacancy), all on deputation, in an agency that tests about 1.2 crore candidates a year [2].
• Process reform: It called a large, continuously updated question bank "the most viable defense against paper leaks." It also backed computer-based testing and keeping final paper-vetters isolated until the exam ends [2].
• Integrity culture: It asked for conflict-of-interest screening that excludes experts with coaching links [2].
• External check: Dr. Radhakrishnan chaired the 2024 expert committee that designed the reforms [4], and he also chairs the steering committee that monitors them [5]. The DRSC adds a check from outside the executive.

Limitations

• Only advisory: Recommendations are not binding, and the Committee cannot force the government to act on them.
• Reactive: The review came only after the NEET-UG 2026 leak forced a re-exam on 21 June 2026 [5], despite reforms made since 2024 [2].
• Delays: Action Taken Replies can be slow or vague, and vacancies can persist for years.

DRSCs therefore turn Parliament's general oversight into detailed scrutiny of individual agencies, as the NTA report shows. Their influence would grow if Action Taken Reports had fixed deadlines and the NTA were given a statutory basis with a duty to report to Parliament. That would protect merit and equal opportunity under Articles 14 and 16 and restore trust in public examinations.