Departmental committees, JPCs and other committees

Detail

Why Parliament works through committees

• The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha meet for only a few weeks each year. They cannot study every bill, budget and policy line by line.
• So they hand detailed work to small groups of MPs called parliamentary committees. A committee is chosen or elected by the House, works under the Speaker or Chairman, and reports back to the House.
• Legal base: the Constitution does not list most committees.
• Article 118 lets each House make its own Rules of Procedure, and most committees come from these rules.

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

• There are two broad kinds:

• Standing committees are permanent and are set up every year or every term.
• Ad hoc committees are temporary. They are set up for one task and end when they submit their report.

Departmentally related standing committees (DRSCs)

• Definition: a DRSC is a permanent committee of MPs from both Houses. Each one watches over one group of ministries or departments, such as Home Affairs or Finance.
• How they grew:

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

• (NCERT: "since 1983 … over twenty such committees"; the correct facts are 1993 and 24.)
• Composition:
• 31 members: 21 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha [2].
• 16 are serviced (run and staffed) 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.
• Term: one year.

• Ministers cannot be members. This keeps the people being checked out of the committee that checks them.

• What DRSCs examine:

• Demands for grants (each ministry's request for money in the Union Budget). They report on these before the Lok Sabha votes on them [2].
• Bills of their ministries, but only when the Speaker or the Chairman refers a bill to them [2].
• Annual reports of ministries.
• Long-term national policy documents.

• The working of departments and government schemes [2].

• What they cannot do: look into day-to-day administration of a ministry.

• Why they matter:
• MPs scrutinise issues away from TV cameras and party pressure.
• Experts and members of the public can give evidence.

• Many changes suggested by committees are later added to bills.

• Bills sent to committees are falling. This figure counts referrals 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]

• 17th Lok Sabha detail: 4 bills went to joint committees. One bill, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, went to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee [8].
• Monsoon Session 2025: 5 of the 13 bills introduced went to select or joint committees (PRS).

Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs)

• Definition: a JPC is an ad hoc (one-time) committee with members from both Houses. It is formed for one bill or one inquiry and ends after it submits its report.

• How a JPC is formed: 1. One House passes a motion (a formal proposal put to vote) to set up the JPC. 2. The other House concurs (agrees) and names its own members. 3. Seats go to parties in proportion to their strength in the House. 4. The committee studies the matter, hears witnesses and presents its report.

• NCERT's description: a JPC may be set up to discuss a bill or to investigate financial irregularities.

• Inquiry JPCs (set up to investigate a scandal):

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 (set up to study a bill):
• Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.
• Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024:
  • 31 members (21 Lok Sabha, 10 Rajya Sabha), chaired by Jagdambika Pal [6].
  • It received 97,27,772 memoranda (written comments from the public and groups) [7].
  • It presented its report in the Lok Sabha, and the bill was then passed in 2025 [6][7].
• Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, on simultaneous elections (Lok Sabha and state assembly polls held together). It was examined with the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 [5].

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

  • Who it covers: the Prime Minister, a Chief Minister or any minister at the Centre or in a state [4].
  • 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 [4].
  • 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 [4].
  • Companion bills: the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025. All three bills went to one JPC chaired by Aparajita Sarangi (BJP, Lok Sabha) [3][4].

• Problems with JPCs:

• The ruling side has a majority in the JPC, so it shapes the final report.
• Opposition members often add dissent notes (written disagreement attached to the report).
• Opposition demands for inquiry JPCs (for example, into a scam) are often refused because the government has to agree to the motion.

Other committees

Committee	House / size	What it does
Business Advisory Committee	Separate committee in each House; chaired by the Speaker (Lok Sabha) or the Chairman (Rajya Sabha)	Sets the House's timetable and decides how much time each bill or debate gets
Committee on Private Members' Bills and Resolutions	Lok Sabha; chaired by the Deputy Speaker	Sorts private members' bills (bills moved by MPs who are not ministers) into categories and gives them time in the House
Committee on Petitions	Each House	Examines petitions (formal requests from citizens) on bills and on matters of public importance
Committee on Government Assurances	Each House	Checks that ministers keep the assurances (promises) they give on the floor of the House
Committee on Subordinate Legislation	Each House	Checks that subordinate legislation (rules and regulations made by the executive under an Act) stays within the powers given by the parent Act
Committee on the Welfare of SCs and STs	Joint; 30 members (20 Lok Sabha, 10 Rajya Sabha)	Watches the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the work of bodies meant to protect them
Committee on Empowerment of Women	Joint; 30 members; set up in 1997	Watches government measures for women's equality and welfare
Joint Committee on Offices of Profit	15 members (10 Lok Sabha, 5 Rajya Sabha)	Advises which government posts should disqualify an MP

• Office of profit means a paid post under the government. Under Article 102(1)(a), holding such a post can disqualify an MP unless Parliament exempts it by law. The law that gives these exemptions is the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959. The Joint Committee advises Parliament on which posts to exempt.
• House-keeping committees deal with how Parliament itself runs:
• Rules Committee: reviews the House's rules of procedure.
• General Purposes Committee: handles matters that do not belong to any other committee.
• House Committee: handles MPs' housing and other facilities.

• Library Committee: oversees the Parliament Library.

• Consultative committees:

• These are informal groups of MPs set up by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Each one is attached to a ministry and chaired by its minister.
• They are not parliamentary committees. They do not report to the House and have no power to call witnesses.
• They let MPs and ministers discuss policy informally.

Prelims Hooks

• DRSCs: set up in 1993 with 17 committees, expanded to 24 in 2004. Each has 31 members (21 Lok Sabha + 10 Rajya Sabha). Trap: NCERT's "1983" is wrong.
• DRSC servicing: 16 by the Lok Sabha and 8 by the Rajya Sabha. Term is one year. Ministers cannot be members.
• DRSCs examine demands for grants, referred bills, annual reports and long-term policy documents. They do not look into day-to-day administration.
• Bills referred to committees: 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha → 16% in the 17th Lok Sabha, the lowest of the last four [8].
• JPC = ad hoc. It is formed by a motion in one House that the other House agrees to. Inquiry JPCs: Bofors 1987, securities scam 1992, stock market 2001, soft drinks 2003, 2G 2011.
• 130th Amendment Bill, 2025: a minister held in custody for 30 days in a row for an offence punishable with 5 years or more is removed on the 31st day. JPC chair: Aparajita Sarangi [3][4].
• Committee on Private Members' Bills and Resolutions: Lok Sabha only, chaired by the Deputy Speaker. The Business Advisory Committee is chaired by the Speaker or the Chairman.
• Joint committees of 30: SC/ST Welfare (20 + 10) and Empowerment of Women (1997). Offices of Profit: 15 (10 + 5).
• Committee on Subordinate Legislation checks rules made by the executive. Committee on Government Assurances checks ministers' promises. Don't mix them up.
• Trap: consultative committees are formed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and chaired by ministers. They are not parliamentary committees.

Mains Points

• Falling committee scrutiny weakens 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 idea: make it compulsory to refer every bill to a DRSC, except money bills and urgent bills.

• Strengths of DRSCs:

• They work across party lines, behind closed doors, and use expert evidence.
• This makes them the main tool for checking the executive between sessions.

• Limits: their reports are only advisory, members serve one-year terms and change often, attendance is low, and they have little research staff.

• JPCs and accountability:

• Inquiry JPCs (Bofors, 2G) showed Parliament investigating the executive itself.

• But the ruling majority controls the report, and opposition demands for JPCs are often refused. This limits their value as a check on the government.

• Committees on recent bills:

• The Waqf JPC received over 97 lakh memoranda [7]. This shows how committees can bring in public views.
• 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 bipartisan scrutiny before Parliament votes on them [4][5].