Where the Committee System Is Written

And the articles that supply the reason, chapter 950. 75(3) and 164(2), collective responsibility; 114 and 266(3), appropriation only by law; 151, the audit reports laid before the House; 101(4), the vacancy on sixty days' absence, chapter 1060.

The parliamentary rules

Chapter 26 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha deals with Parliamentary Committees and with appointment, quorum, decisions of the committee and the like, chapter 1000.

The rules this book has read, by number.

Rule 77 (Lok Sabha), chapter 1030. After the final report of a Select or Joint Committee on a Bill, the member in charge may move that the Bill as reported be taken into consideration, or that it be re-committed without limitation, as to particular clauses or amendments, or with instructions, or that it be circulated or recirculated for eliciting opinion; with the proviso that an objection prevails where the report was not available for two days, unless the Speaker allows the motion; and sub-rule (2) allowing any member to move re-committal or circulation as an amendment.

Rule 78 (Lok Sabha), chapter 1030. The debate on the motion for consideration shall be confined to consideration of the report of the Committee.

Rule 269 (Rajya Sabha), chapter 1020. Each departmentally related Standing Committee is to consist of not more than thirty-one members, ten nominated by the Chairperson from the Rajya Sabha and twenty-one by the Speaker from the Lok Sabha; and a Third Schedule names each Committee and the Ministries within its purview.

Rule 270 (Rajya Sabha), chapter 1020. Functions: (a) Demands for Grants, the report "shall not suggest anything of the nature of cut motions"; (b) Bills referred by the Chairman or the Speaker; (c) annual reports; (d) national basic long-term policy documents if referred; with a proviso that the Committees shall not consider matters of day-to-day administration.

Rule 274 (Rajya Sabha). The report "shall be based on broad consensus", a member being free to record a dissent.

Rule 275 (Rajya Sabha). The provisions applicable to Select Committees on Bills apply mutatis mutandis to the Standing Committees.

Rule 277 (Rajya Sabha), chapter 1020. "The report of a Standing Committee shall have persuasive value and shall be treated as considered advice given by the Committee."

Rule 222 (Lok Sabha), chapter 1040. This book has not read the text of rule 222. What it has read is a statement made in the House and reproduced by the Supreme Court, that the law of privileges "has not been codified except in Rule 222", from which it follows that rule 222 is where a question of privilege is dealt with. State it that way and no further.

Directions by the Speaker. Alongside the Rules there are Directions issued by the Speaker under the Rules, which supplement them on matters of detail. This book holds no text of them and names them only as part of the answer to what regulates the committees.

The list of Standing Committees, from the Rules

Chapter 1000 reproduces it. Business Advisory Committee 15; Committee of Privileges 15; Committee on Absence of Members 15; Committee on Empowerment of Women; Committee on Estimates 30; Committee on Government Assurances 15; Committee on Papers Laid on the Table 15; Committee on Petitions 15; Committee on Private Members Bills and Resolutions 15; Committee on Public Accounts 22; Committee on Public Undertakings 22; Committee on Subordinate Legislation 15; Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes 30; House Committee 12; Joint Committee on Offices of Profit 15; Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances 15; Library Committee 9; Rules Committee 15; and the departmentally related Standing Committees.

How to answer MU's question 4

Four paragraphs, in this order.

One: why the power exists. Chapter 950: the power to inquire is incidental to the power to legislate and the duty of collective responsibility under articles 75(3) and 164(2), and no article confers it in terms.

Two: the constitutional provisions. Articles 105 and 194 for privilege; articles 118 and 208 for the rule-making power; articles 122 and 212 for the bar on questioning proceedings for irregularity of procedure.

Three: the parliamentary rules. Chapter 26 of the Lok Sabha Rules; the categories of Standing and Ad hoc Committees; rules 269, 270, 274, 275 and 277 for the departmentally related Standing Committees; rules 77 and 78 for Select and Joint Committees on Bills; rule 222 for questions of privilege; and the Directions by the Speaker.

Four: what the rules give and withhold. They give the power to require attendance and the production of documents and to hear experts or special interests, chapter 1070; and they withhold any sanction, the sanction being the House's contempt power under article 105(3), and any binding force, the report having persuasive value as considered advice under rule 277.

A candidate who structures the answer that way has answered both halves of a question most will answer in one.

A worked example

An examiner asks what empowers a departmentally related Standing Committee to examine a Ministry's Demands for Grants and to summon its Secretary.

The Constitution, for the reason. Article 114 and article 266(3): money may be appropriated only by law made by the House, so the House must be able to examine what it is asked to vote. Article 75(3): collective responsibility.

The Constitution, for the rule-making power. Article 118(1): each House may make rules for regulating its procedure and the conduct of its business.

The rules, for the committee and its function. Rule 269 constitutes it and fixes its composition at thirty-one, twenty-one and ten; rule 270(a) gives it the function of considering the Demands for Grants and reporting, the report not to suggest anything in the nature of cut motions.

The rules, for the power to summon. The Committees can regulate their procedure for requiring the attendance of persons and for the production of documents and can hear experts or special interests.

The Constitution, for the sanction. Article 105(3): the House's power to punish a contempt, chapter 990. The rules contain no penalty.

And what the report is worth. Rule 277: persuasive value, considered advice; and outside the House, chapter 1110, a public document a court may read and nobody may impeach.

What beginners get wrong

That the Constitution names the committees. It names none. Rules made under article 118 or 208 create every one of them.

That article 105 is the source of a committee's powers. It is the source of the privilege; the rules are the source of the powers.

That article 122 bars all review. It bars a challenge for irregularity of procedure only.

That rule 277 makes a report binding. It gives it persuasive value as considered advice.

That the Speaker's Directions are the same as the Rules. They supplement the Rules on matters of detail.

Quick revision

Constitutional: arts 105 and 194 (privilege, four clauses each); arts 118 and 208 (rules of procedure, and therefore the committees); arts 122 and 212 (no challenge for irregularity of procedure). Behind them: arts 75(3) and 164(2) collective responsibility, arts 114 and 266(3) appropriation by law, art 151 audit reports laid, art 101(4) sixty days' absence.

Rules: Chapter 26 of the Lok Sabha Rules; rr.77 and 78 Select and Joint Committees on Bills; rr.269, 270, 274, 275, 277 (Rajya Sabha) for the departmentally related Standing Committees; r.222 questions of privilege (named on a statement quoted by the Court, the text not held here); and the Directions by the Speaker.

The four-paragraph answer: why the power exists (incidental, no article in terms); the constitutional provisions; the parliamentary rules by number; and what they give and withhold, namely attendance and production but no sanction of their own and no binding force.

Test yourself

1. What constitutional provisions empower legislative committees in India to conduct inquiries? No article confers a power to inquire in terms; the power is incidental to the power to legislate and to the collective responsibility of the Council of Ministers to the House under articles 75(3) and 164(2), and to the requirement of articles 114 and 266(3) that money be appropriated only by law. The Constitution then supplies two things and withholds a third. Articles 105 and 194 confer freedom of speech in the House, immunity from proceedings in any court for anything said or any vote given in the House or any committee, protection for publications made by or under the authority of the House, and the residual powers, privileges and immunities as they stood before the Forty-fourth Amendment, extended by clause (4) to persons entitled to take part in proceedings. Articles 118 and 208 empower each House to make rules regulating, subject to the Constitution, its procedure and the conduct of its business, and it is under those rules that every committee is created. Articles 122 and 212 withhold from the courts the power to question the validity of proceedings on the ground of an alleged irregularity of procedure, and protect officers exercising powers to regulate procedure or maintain order.

2. Which parliamentary rules matter, and what does each do? Chapter 26 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha deals with Parliamentary Committees and with their appointment, quorum and decisions. Rules 77 and 78 govern what the House may do with the report of a Select or Joint Committee on a Bill and confine the debate on the motion for consideration to the report. In the Rajya Sabha Rules, rule 269 fixes the composition of each departmentally related Standing Committee at not more than thirty-one members, ten nominated by the Chairperson and twenty-one by the Speaker; rule 270 sets out their functions, namely Demands for Grants with a bar on suggesting anything in the nature of cut motions, Bills referred to them, annual reports and long-term policy documents, with a proviso excluding day-to-day administration; rule 274 requires the report to be based on broad consensus with liberty to dissent; rule 275 applies the Select Committee provisions mutatis mutandis; and rule 277 provides that the report shall have persuasive value and be treated as considered advice. Rule 222 of the Lok Sabha Rules is where a question of privilege is dealt with. Directions issued by the Speaker supplement the Rules on matters of detail.

3. Where does a committee's power to summon a witness come from, and where does the sanction come from? The power comes from the rules made under article 118 or article 208, under which the committees can regulate their procedure for requiring the attendance of persons and for the production of documents and can hear experts or special interests. The sanction comes from elsewhere: the rules contain no penalty, and a refusal is punishable because it is a contempt of the House, the power to punish contempt being among the powers, privileges and immunities preserved by article 105(3) or article 194(3). The distinction is the single most useful one in this module, and an answer that attributes the power to article 105 has confused the two sources.