Discuss the significance of Department-Related Standing Committees in strengthening legislative scrutiny in India, with reference to the Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026.

Department-Related Standing Committees (DRSCs), created in 1993, cover all Union ministries and examine Bills, Demands for Grants and policy referred to them [3]. Their value was visible again when the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Bill, 2026 — introduced in the Lok Sabha in the Monsoon Session by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation [1] — was referred to the Standing Committee on Finance by Speaker Om Birla, with a report due in three months [5].

Deepening scrutiny of technical legislation

• The ISI Bill converts the institute from a registered society under the 1959 Act into a statutory body corporate, aligning it with Institutions of National Importance [1][2] — a change whose implications need clause-by-clause study rather than a short floor debate.
• It reconfigures the Board of Governors and deletes the Centre's power to take charge of ISI for up to two years on default [1]; a committee is better placed to test this autonomy-accountability balance.

Depoliticised, expert deliberation

• Committees work outside the glare of the House, without the whip, allowing cross-party consensus; PRS describes them as "mini-parliaments" that can summon officials and experts [4].
• With shrinking sitting days, they are often the only forum for detailed examination of Bills [3][4].

Widening stakeholder participation

• Committees receive memoranda and depositions — relevant here, since ISI faculty protests and Opposition demands preceded the referral [5]; earlier, the draft 2025 Bill's public feedback window was itself extended [2].

Limits

• Referral is discretionary, not mandatory, and recommendations are non-binding; many recent Bills have passed without committee study [4].

Committee referral thus converts contested legislation into considered law, as the ISI Bill illustrates. Institutionalising mandatory referral of technical Bills, adequate research support and time-bound government responses would strengthen this practice, ensuring that Parliament's deliberative role — the essence of responsible government under the Constitution — is exercised in substance, not merely in form.