Date: 17/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, the conduct of business, powers & privileges, and issues arising out of these.

Key Phrases: Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSC), examine various legislations, Deliberations, add value to the content of the legislation, no whip of the party, and Value addition by Experts.

Why in News?

• In the recently concluded monsoon session, Parliament witnessed the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 being sent to the Standing Committee of Parliament for detailed examination and a report thereon.

Relevant Parliamentary data:

• The functioning of the monsoon session of Parliament this year bears testimony to this fact: the Lok Sabha’s productivity was 47% and the Rajya Sabha’s only 42%.
• The percentage of Bills having been referred to the DRSCs during the tenures of the 14th (2004-2009), 15th (2009-2014), and 16th Lok Sabhas (2014-2019) have been 60%, 71%, and 27%, respectively.

Why government should not shy away from referring Bills to the committee?

• No obligation on government:
  • Even though it is not obligatory for the Government to agree to refer each Bill to the DRSC, the experience, both nationally and internationally, has been that referring a Bill to the DRSC has been of use to the process of law-making.
• Proper examination of Bill:
  • It has been alleged that Bills that are not being referred to the parliamentary committees, are not examined properly, especially from the perspective of consumers and stakeholders, and remain just a bureaucratically conceived piece of legislation.
  • The examination of the Bills by the parliamentary committees is more to the benefit of the Government than the Opposition.
  • The committee meetings are held in a comparatively congenial atmosphere of bonhomie and cordiality than they would be in Parliament.
• Value addition:
  • The deliberations in these committees mostly add value to the content of the legislation and, more often than not, the Members, their party positions notwithstanding, try to reach a consensus.
• Ruling party has majority voting:
  • Governments and the ruling party should not be wary of these committees, as in most of these committees, the government has a majority and the final decision is always by the process of majority voting.
  • Therefore, there is no reason why any government should shy away from referring Bills to the committee.
  • So, fostering the trust of parliamentarians, both from the ruling party and the Opposition parties, in the relevance and usefulness of the system of the committees is of paramount importance.

Corrective Actions:

• Compulsory reference of Bills:
  • It may be useful to make the process of reference of Bills to these committees compulsory/an automatic process.
  • An exemption could be made with the specific approval of the Speaker/Chairman after detailed reasons for the same.
  • The prerogative of the House to refer the Bills to the Standing committee, through an amendment, would, of course, remain unaffected.
• Fixed timeline:
  • The committees can be given a fixed timeline to come up with the recommendations and present their report which can be decided by the Speaker/Chairman.
  • The committees mostly abide by this direction of the Speaker/Chairman.
  • To deal with just political exigencies, it can be provided that in case the committee fails to give its recommendation within the approved/extended time, the Bill may be put up before the House concerned directly.
• Value addition by Experts:
  • To ensure quality work in the committees, experts in the field may be invited who could bring with them the necessary domain knowledge and also help introduce the latest developments and trends in that field from worldwide.
  • It would be value for money if some subject matter experts/young researchers could be associated with the committee for a short period.
• Organize committee meetings during the inter-sessional period:
  • Between two sessions, there is generally enough time to organize committee meetings for discussions on Bills in the parliamentary committees.
  • Sometimes, the government, and the committee chairmen are lax in this respect, and then try to push through these pieces of legislation when the next session is announced.
  • Hence, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs needs to keep an eye on this and, in collaboration with the committee chairmen, get these parliamentary works organized during the inter-sessional period, in advance.
• Suggestions and innovations:
  • When it comes to the budget proposals of the Ministries, the committees should not limit themselves to discussing just the budget proposals and endorsing them with a few qualifications here or amendments there. They should also come up with suggestions for the Ministry to take up new initiatives and people-friendly measures.

Conclusion:

• The primary role of Parliament is deliberation, discussion, and reconsideration, the hallmarks of any democratic institution.
• Parliamentary Committees help with this by providing a forum where Members can engage with domain experts and government officials during the course of their study.
• For the benefit of parliamentary democracy, it is necessary to strengthen the committees rather than ignore them.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Examine whether the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees have been able to achieve their stated objectives, and if not or if done inadequately, what the corrective actions could be to increase their efficacy and their relevance.