Topics Covered: Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
Leaders call for House panels’ meet:
Context:
MPs have appealed to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asking them to allow virtual meetings of the parliamentary panels.
Background:
With the country in midst of a virulent second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been no meeting of the standing committees for more than a month now.
What are Parliamentary Committees?
A parliamentary committee is a “committee which is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker and which works under the direction of the Speaker and presents its report to the House or to the Speaker and the Secretariat”.
- Parliamentary Committees are of two kinds – Standing Committees and ad hoc Committees. The former are elected or appointed every year or periodically and their work goes on, more or less, on a continuous basis. The latter are appointed on an ad hoc basis as need arises and they cease to exist as soon as they complete the task assigned to them.
Constitutional Provisions:
Parliamentary committees draw their authority from Article 105 (on privileges of Parliament members) and Article 118 (on Parliament’s authority to make rules for regulating its procedure and conduct of business).
Composition of Departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs):
- Until the 13th Lok Sabha, each DRSC comprised 45 members — 30 nominated from Lok Sabha and 15 from the Rajya Sabha.
- However, with their restructuring in July 2004, each DRSC now has 31 members — 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha, to be nominated by Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman, respectively.
- They are appointed for a maximum period of one year and the committees are reconstituted every year cutting across party lines.
Composition of Financial Committees:
The estimates committee has 30 members, all from the Lok Sabha.
Both the public accounts committee and the committee on public undertakings have 22 members each — 15 elected from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Difference between Parliamentary vs Cabinet committees.
- Standing vs select vs finance committees.
- Who appoints chairperson and members of these committees?
- Committees exclusive to only Lok Sabha.
- Committees where Speaker is the chairperson.
Mains Link:
What are Parliamentary Standing committees? Why are they necessary? Discuss their roles and functions to bring out their significance.
Sources: the Hindu.
