Parliament plays a central role in our democracy, both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha scrutinize the work of the Government through several procedures. Beyond the visible work in the two Houses, a substantial part of the work is carried out by committees. They evolved as parliamentary innovation in 1993 to tackle the ‘guillotine’ of key legislature due to paucity of time. It has evolved as a ‘mini-parliament’ with proportional representation of all parties. There are 24 DRSCs. Each DRSC has 31 members, with 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. Seats on each Committee are allocated to parties in proportion to their strength in the House.

Role played by Departmentally Related Standing Committee (DRSCs):

• It helps Parliament manage its business better. It is easier to examine a topic in depth by a committee of 30 than by an assembly of 700. They scrutinizing Demand for Grant, bills of concerned ministries, Consideration of annual reports and present a report.
• It enables input from experts and those who may be directly affected by a policy or legislation. For example, the DRSCs often invite comments from the public and call people to testify.
• It ensures executive and financial accountability of the government. Several complex nature and technical legislature and policy issues are referred to DRSC.
• Being outside direct public glare allows members to discuss issues and reach consensus without worrying about constituency pressures.
• An advantage in the Indian context is that the anti­defection law does not apply to committees - therefore, decisions are not usually made on party lines.
• These committees allow members to focus on some specific areas and build their expertise,which helps them scrutinize issues more thoroughly.

Issues with Departmentally Related Standing Committee(DRSCs):

• All Bills are not referred to committees. Whereas during the period of the last two parliaments, 60 percent and 71 percent of all Bills were referred to committees, just 27 percent of Bills introduced in the current Parliament have been so referred.
• Though rules mention that the Speaker of Lok Sabha or Chairman of Rajya Sabha refers the Bill, this is usually done on the recommendation of the relevant minister.
• The recommendation of committees is not binding. It is for the Government or any other member to move the relevant amendments, which may then be voted upon by the House.
• One major weakness of these committees is the lack of standing research support. They are backed by the general support staff of Parliament and do not have a dedicated set of researchers associated with them. While they can (and often do) reach out to outside experts,there is no internal expertise.
• Low attendance of MPs at meetings; too many ministries under a committee; norms not followed by most political parties while nominating MPs to committees; and the constitution of DRSCs for a year leaves very little time for specializations.
• Issue of transparency of the work of committees. All committees meet behind closed doors and only the final report is published, with summary minutes. There have been arguments that the meetings should be televised or at least the full transcripts be published.

Way Forward :

To improve the functioning of DRSCs, the recommendation of National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) should be implemented. These include, DRSCs should be periodically reviewed. All Bills should be referred to DRSCs. The DRSCs may finalize the second
reading stage in the Committee. Major reports of all Committees should be discussed in Parliament especially in cases where there is disagreement between a Committee and the government, creating research teams, and improving the transparency of input from advocacy groups. Their performance
will improve the overall effectiveness of Parliament as an institution that makes laws, holds the Government accountable, and gives sanction for public spending.