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.