Committee on public accounts

The Committee on Public Accounts consists of 15 members elected by the Lok Sabha every year from amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. It is basically a Committee of the Lok Sabha only. But seven members of the Rajya Sabha elected by that House in like manner were later associated with the Committee. The Chairman of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst the members of the Lok Sabha elected to the Committee. By convention, the Speaker appoints a Member of the opposition as the Chairman of the Committee. A Minister is not eligible to be elected as a Member of the Committee. The term of office of the Members of the Committee is not more than one year. The Public Accounts Committee examine the accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the expenditure of the Government of India, the annual finance Accounts of the Government of India and such other accounts laid before the House as the committee may think fit. The committee examines also the Report of the Comptroller and auditor-General on Revenue Receipts - on relating to Direct taxes and the other relating to Indirect Taxes. The Committee, however, doesn’t examine the accounts relating to such Public Undertakings that are allotted to the Committee on Public Undertakings.

Committee on public undertakings

 The Committee on public Undertakings consists of 15 members elected by the Lok Sabha every year from amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Seven members of the Rajya Sabha elected by that House in like manner are associated with the Committee. The Chairman of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst members of the Lok Sabha elected to the Committee. A Minister is not eligible to be elected as a member of the Committee. The functions of the Committee are to examine the Reports and Accounts of the Public Undertakings specified in the Fourth Schedule of the rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the Lok Sabha and the Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General thereon, if any, and to examine, in the context to the autonomy and efficiency of the public Undertakings, whether the affairs of the public undertakings, are being run efficiently and managed in accordance with the sound business principles and prudent commercial practices. The Committee may also examine such subjects or matters, which may be specifically referred to it by the House or by the Speaker.

Committee on the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes consists of 20 members elected by the Lok Sabha every year form amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Ten members of the Rajya Sabha elected by that House in like manner are associated with the Committee. The Chairman of the Committee is appointed by the Speaker from amongst the members of the Lok Sabha elected to the Committee.  A Minister is not eligible to be elected as a member of the Committee. The important functions of the Committee are to consider the reports submitted by the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, to examine the representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in services of Central Government Departments, Central Public undertaking, Nationalized Banks etc., and to review the working of welfare programs for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Union Territories. The Committee also examines such other matters as may deem fit to the Committee or are specifically referred to it by the House or the Speaker. The Committee can also examine the implementation of various programs for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by State Government provided funds are made available partly or wholly by the Central Government.

Departmentally related standing committees

From the Budget Session of 1993 onwards, the Departmentally related Standing Committee system has been introduced to secure more accountability of the Executive to the Legislature. All these years, the Demands for Grants on only a handful of Ministries and Departments of the Government of India alone had been taken up for detailed discussion during the Budgetary process and the Demands of more than 80 percent of the Ministries remained practically undiscussed. Due to paucity of time, discussions on most of the activities of Government were thus guillitoned and to that extent the government accountability to the legislature could not be secured. In order to obviate this difficulty, the Budget Committee System has been introduced.

1. The functions of each of the Standing Committees shall be: -

(a)     To consider the Demands for Grants of the concerned Ministries/Departments and make a report on the same to the House. The report shall not suggest anything of the nature of cut motions;

(b)     To examine such Bills pertaining to the concerned Ministries/Departments as are referred to the Committee by the chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, as the case may be, and make report there on;

(c)     To consider annual reports of Ministries/Departments and make reports there on;

(d)     To consider national basic long-term policy documents presented to the Houses, if referred to the Committee by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, as the case may be, and make reports there on;

2.      The Standing Committee shall not consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the concerned Ministries/ departments. The following procedure shall be followed by each of the Standing Committees in their consideration of the Demands for Grants and making a report there on to the Houses: -

(a)     After the general discussion on the Budget in the Houses is over, the Houses shall be adjourned for a fixed period;

(b)     The Committees shall consider the Demands for Grants of the Concerned Ministries during the aforesaid period; -

(c)     The Committees shall make their report within the period and shall not ask for more time;

(d)     The Demands for Grants shall be considered by the House in the light of the reports of the Committees; and

(e)     There shall be a separate report on the Demands for Grants of each Ministry.

The following procedure shall be followed by each of the Standing committees in examining the Bills and making report there on;

(a)     The Committee shall consider the general principles and clauses of the Bills refereed to them and make report thereon;

(b)     The Committee shall consider only such Bills introduced in either of the House as are referred to them by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha or the Speaker, as the case may be; and

(c)     The Committee shall make report on the Bills in given time.

There are 17 departmentally related Standing Committees with each Standing Committee covering a few Ministries under its jurisdiction. Each Standing Committee shall consist of 30 members nominated by Speaker from lok Sabha and 15 members nominated by Chairman Rajya Sabha from among members of Rajya Sabha. Chairman of 6 Committees would be nominated by Chairman of Rajya Sabha while the Chairman of all committees would be nominated by the Speaker. The term of office of Committee shall not exceed one year.

The Reports of the Standing Committees shall have only persuasive value and shall be treated as advice of the Committees. What is Private Members’ business: Every member who is not a Minister is called a Private Member. Private Members’ business includes Private Member’s Bills and Private members’ Resolutions. The Period of notice for introduction of a Bill is one month unless the presiding Officer allows introduction at a shorter notice, and that or a Resolution is two days.

Other facts

17 departmental related committees were set up in 1993

In July 2004, rules were amended to provide for the constitution of seven more such committees, thus raising their number to 24.

Issue for Analysis:

What ails our parliamentary system of Government?

The framework of our Parliamentary government may be criticized on three grounds. First, though we have the lengthiest Constitution in the world, its provisions relating to the framework of Parliamentary government are quite sketchy. Much has been left to the conventions prevailing in Britain and other countries having the same form of government. We have not yet been able to establish healthy traditions as a result of which the working of this form of government is ably done.

 For instance, if we take a flashback of mid 80’s, the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not observe the practice of keeping the President well informed about the affairs of administration despite being constitutionally obliged to do so as per the terms of Article-78, and so the relationship between the two heads, the ‘dignified’ and the ‘efficient’, as termed by Walter Bagehot, became strained short of becoming an open constitutional crisis.

Second, accountability of the rulers to the ruled is the most essential requirement of a democratic system especially in a Parliamentary system like ours.  But the fact of accountability exists by the side of stability of administration. In case no party gets a clear majority in the Lok Sabha and coalition governments come with the wind and go with the whirlwind, the accountability of the government of the day will become merely a farce. Moreover, India a poor nation of teeming millions cannot afford to have recurrent elections keeping in view the humongous expense involved in the elections.

 For this reason, it is suggested by many responsible leaders that we should switch over to the Presidential form of government. It remained a matter of serious academic debate in the 1990s. During the period of 1989-91 we had a very sad experience of the governments under V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar who could not play the role of an effective leader on account of their weak position in the Lok Sabha. The parties that did not join the government but preferred to render support from ‘outside’ pulled the legs and so first the BJP took the toll on the V.P. Singh’s government in 1990 and then the Congress (I) did the same for the governments of Chandra Shekhar in 1991.

Lastly, over the years the position of one man (Prime Minister) became so powerful that our country came to have the same form of government what Crossman called, ‘Prime Ministerial form of Government with respect to England. The head of the government became so powerful that all other ministers became either his/her camp-followers or ‘palace guards’. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took many decisions on her own and converted her ministers into non-entities. So was the case of her successor, Rajiv Gandhi. Similar trend cannot be given an oversight even during the regime of PM, Modi.

 The Prime Minister’s Secretariat established by Shastri became Prime Minister’s Office and now the PMO has become a centre of extra-constitutional power in its own right. A glaring instance of PMO’s rise may be quoted of Rajiv Gandhi’s government when, his Defence Minister, (K.C. Pant) quoted to have said that he could not have the clearance from the PMO to see Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Keeping all this in his view, a veteran politician of India says: “The Cabinet form of government was undoubtedly twisted out of shape during the premiership of Indira Gandhi, especially after the Congress split in 1969. During the emergency it was reduced to mockery. Rajiv Gandhi has not only restored the Cabinet Government, he has further undermined it. His cronies dominate the decision-making process from outside the Cabinet; within the Cabinet, ministers are afraid to speak out their mind. Cabinet meetings are not the forum of serious discussion of policies; they are the occasions for competitive adulation of the leader.”

Things however witnessed a change for the better under the stewardship of P.V. Narasimha Rao and his successors to some extent. But the strong position of the Prime Minister has become a fait accompli.

 But then, there remains the other side of the story that the Prime Minister should not be taken as a ‘dictator’ in view of the fact that the control of the Parliament is always there. Moreover, the free press has its own part to play in exposing the extra-constitutional and patently as well as latently unconstitutional activities of the working head of the state. Still a pertinent question may be raised as to:

What has made the position of the Prime Minister so unassailable? An answer to this question should be traced both in the prevailing political conditions in which opposition parties have not been able to play their part in an effective manner as we are witnessing now and also in the wrong tradition of identifying the party in power with the government as happens in a country under a totalitarian form of government. The Prime Minister is not only the head of the government and the working head of the state; he is also the supreme leader of his party having majority in the Parliament. It all makes him the supreme ruler of the country.

Issue for Analysis:

Has the Parliament become merely an ornamental institution?

Our Parliament is a non-sovereign law-making body like the legislature of other countries excluding Britain. While the Constitution has accepted the principle of separation of powers and placed the Parliament in a position of its own, its powers have been circumscribed by the written provisions of the Constitution, the norms of a federal polity and above all, by the system of judicial review. The Supreme Court and the High courts have the power to declare any law of Parliament void, in part or full, if it is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution. Not only this, the Courts have also invented some other grounds to strike down a law of a Parliament as the doctrines of ‘competence’ and of ‘basic structure of the Constitution’. We know that in a parliamentary system the executive usurps the inherent functions of the Parliament. All official bills are carried through and a bill moved by a private member has hardly any chance of adoption unless it receives the blessings of the Ministers. The Parliament discusses matters included in the agenda prepared by the Business Advisory Committee in which the Prime Minister, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha play the decisive role. The voice of the Leader of the Opposition is given some weight of course, but it is the leaders of the party in power who dominate all the proceedings.

 Consequently, what the Parliament discusses or may discuss is determined by the policy of the executive. The Cabinet decides about the duration of the sessions of Parliament. Above all, the Prime Minister, may advise the president to dissolve the Lok Sabha at any time. As such, the Parliament looks like a tool in the hands of the Ministers.

It, however, does not mean that in our political set up, the Parliament has become either like an ornamental institution or virtually redundant. It is true that the members of both the Houses have lost their autonomy in the name of the discipline in the ranks of the party and they have to vote in the House according to the whip issued by the party leader so as to avoid the penalty of defection amounting to the loss of their membership of House, it should not be lost sight of the fact that the deliberations of the Parliament have their own impact on the administration of the country. The criticism of the ministry compels the administration to stick to the right side or to face a situation of exit.

In case no party commands clear majority in the Lok Sabha, the ministry has to behave in a very responsible way so as to survive in the struggle for existence. The events of the last few years testify to this fact. Some Prime Ministers (like Nehru, Shastri, Indira and Rajiv) could behave like powerful rulers of the country just on account of the overwhelming strength of their party in both Houses of Parliament. But other Prime Ministers (like Morarji Desai, Chaudhry Charan Singh, V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar and Vajpayee) could not complete their term for want of support in the Lok Sabha. Happily, the recent developments indicate that our Parliament “is becoming more representative of the people of India, of the level of their political awareness, or their lack of sophistication and of their problems, hopes and aspirations.” Only worry is the continuous stalemate and din accompanied by frequent adjournments on the part of the presiding officers. Let the Parliament prove true to its institutional character as the microcosm of the world by developing some healthy practices or conventions.

Key terms

Ad Sine Die: It is an adjournment of the house without fixing any date, day or time of the next meeting or re-assembly.

Administrative Law: That part of the law, which is administered not by the ordinary courts but by special tribunals known as administrative courts. These courts only handle those cases in which state is the party. The system is not favoured by some because it makes the state a judge giving verdict in its own case.

Adult Suffrage: Means that any person who is of certain legally determined age is qualified to be a voter unless he is disqualified under a law made by appropriate legislature (Art. 324).

Annual Financial Statement: A statement made by ministry of finance in the legislature containing the probable income and expenditure of the govt. for any year.

Bill: It is a draft legislative proposal, which on enactment becomes an act and assumes the legal binding.

Ordinary Bill: A bill which can be originated in either house of the parliament and the on which the Upper house shares an equal power as that of the Lower house.

Money Bill: A bill which can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and essentially and purely relates to financial matters.

Financial Bill: A bill besides carrying the provisions related to money matters as contained in a money bill does carry some additional matters other than the money matters. This bill can also be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. But since, a financial bill does contain some other matters other than those contained in the money bill as per Article110 of the Constitution, the Rajya Sabha thus, has equal powers so far as the rejection or amending the same. Similarly, the President can also send the same for re-consideration again.

Appropriation Bill: A formal sanction of the Parliament to the Government to make expenditure out of the consolidated fund of India.

Breach of Privilege and Contempt of House: The difference lies in the body of person, which infringes the privileges. When the house collectively or a member individually is prohibited to realize its/ his privileges from within it is called breach of privilege (Art 105) and when the same is done by a person outside the house it is called contempt of the house (Art 194).

Call Attention Motion: By this motion, a member can ask for explanation from the minister on the matters of urgent public importance at short notice. The speaker is free to allow or disallow such a request.

Censure Motion: A motion, which may be moved against the individual minister a group of ministers for their failure. It may express regret, indignation of house at such failures.

Cut Motions: A motion that sees reduction in the amount of a demand presented by the govt. There are three types of cut motions.

1.         Disapproval of policy cut: used to express the disapproval of the policy underlying the demand.

2.         Economy cut: asks for reduction on the amount of demand by a specific amount.

3.   Token cut: is a device to ventilate specific grievances within the sphere of government responsibility.

Delegated Legislation: Refers to laws or rules enacted by the executive departments under an authority delegated to them by the parliament.

Direct Taxes: The taxes which directly affect an individual for example, Income tax.

Excess Demand for Grants: The demands for excess grants are made after the expenditure has been incurred and after the financial year to which it relates has expired. (Art. 115)

Exceptional Grant: Is made for a particular or special purpose, which does not form the part of the ordinary expenditure of the financial year. No such demands have yet been presented to the parliament. (Art. 116)

Guillotine: There are occasions when the time set for a particular measure is already over inspite of the fact that the discussion on it has not been completed then a vote is taken on the motion before the house to put to vote the rest of measure without discussion. The procedure is called Guillotine.

Lame Duck Session:  Refers to the sitting of the elected assembly, which continues in the office during the period between the election and the inauguration of the successor.

Point of Order: Interruption of debate etc. in the legislature with inquiry whether something being said or done is according to the rules or not. The presiding officer decided whether the point of order raised by member should be allowed.

Public Account: Money received from any other source (other than deposited in CFI) by the govt. comes under this account. Examples are pension amounts. Provident funds, Govt. can only take a loan from this account.

Special Mention: It is device to bring to the attention of house and the govt. a matter of urgent public importance that calls for immediate action.

Starred and Unstarred Questions: A starred question is one to which an oral answer is sought while a written answer is sought for the other one i.e. for an unstarred one.

Statute: Law passed by legislative body and set forth in a formal document. It refers to written as opposed to unwritten law.

Supplementary Demand for Grants: If the amount sanctioned for a particular service is insufficient during the year, additional amount is sanctioned through this statement. (Art. 115)

Vote of Credit: In the case of national emergency, house might grant a lump sum without details through vote of credit.

Zero Hour:  It is the period which follows the question hour when the members raise any issue of public importance on very short notice or without notice. Not recognized under the rules and procedures of the house of parliament.