The Financial Committees

In one line

Three committees examine the money: one asks whether it was spent as voted, one asks whether it need have been spent at all, and one asks how the public sector spent it.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: Chapter 26 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha deals with Parliamentary Committees, which are of two kinds, Standing Committees, which are permanent and regular and constituted in pursuance of an Act of Parliament or of the Rules, and Ad hoc Committees, appointed for a specific purpose and ceasing to exist when they report; the Standing Committees include the Financial Committees, the departmentally related Standing Committees, House Committees, Enquiry Committees, Scrutiny Committees and Service Committees; and the three Financial Committees are the Committee on Public Accounts and the Committee on Public Undertakings, of twenty-two members each, and the Committee on Estimates, of thirty members.

The classification, from the Rules themselves

Two kinds. Standing Committees are permanent and regular, constituted from time to time in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of Parliament or the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, and their work is of a continuous nature. Ad hoc Committees are appointed for a specific purpose and cease to exist when they finish the task and submit a report, the principal ones being the Select and Joint Committees on Bills.

Six categories of Standing Committee, as the Rules classify them: (a) Financial Committees; (b) Subject Committees or departmentally related Standing Committees of the two Houses; (c) House Committees, relating to the day to day business of the House; (d) Enquiry Committees; (e) Scrutiny Committees; (f) Service Committees.

And a second classification by function. One category, such as the departmentally related Standing Committees and the Financial Committees, scrutinises the functioning of the Government as per its mandate; the other, such as the Rules Committee, the House Committee and the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances, deals with matters relating to the Houses and members.

The definition worth quoting. A Parliamentary Committee means a Committee which is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker and which works under the direction of the Speaker and presents its report to the House or to the Speaker.

And the reason the system exists, in the Court's own words. The functions of Parliament are diverse and complex in nature and considerable in volume, and the time at its disposal is limited; it cannot give close consideration to all the legislative and other matters before it, so a good deal of its business is transacted in the Committees of the House.