Parliamentary Scrutiny on the Back Burner

Context: There has been a decline in the Parliamentary Scrutiny since the government is losing sight of its Parliament’s primary role – discussion and reconsideration.

• Significance of Parliamentary Committee system: 

• Exercises accountability on the government.

• Types of Committees are- 

• Standing Committees – Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee and Committee on Public Undertakings.
• Ad-hoc Committees like Standing Committees and Joint Committees which are assigned with the task of scrutinizing the Bills.
• Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs): In 1993, 17 DRSCs (later 24), drawing member from both the Houses were set up.

• Executives cannot be a member of the committees.
• Guardians of Autonomy of the House: the committees of scrutiny and oversight, as the case with other committees of the House, are not divided on a party line.
• Informal proceedings as compared to the codes that govern parliamentary proceedings.
• Act as a training school for the new and young member of the House.

• Solicit expert advice and elicit public opinion.

The marginalization of Parliamentary Committees in India

• Non-reference of the Bills to DRSCs: While 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were wetted by the DRSCs concerned; this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha.

• For, E.g. The last Bill referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee was The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, in 2015.
• Acts such as abrogation of Article 370 and the recent agriculture produce and marketing amendments acts have escaped the crucial committee scrutiny.

• Reason for the marginalization: the novel coronavirus pandemic and the urgent need to enact safety measures.

• However, if the urgency is the criteria, then Women Reservation Bill, on which there was a broad consensus in the House, should have been brought up.