Department Related Parliamentary Committees

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology recently raised several questions on implication on data privacy of citizens with vague definitions of “public interest” and “national security” in the draft Indian Telecommunication Act, 2022.

History –

• 17 DRSCs were established in Parliament in 1993 on the proposal of the Lok Sabha Rules Committee.
• Seven more similar committees were established in 2004 and their numbers were thus increased from 17 to 24.

Objective –

• The fundamental purpose of the Standing Committees is to make the Executive (i.e. the Council of Ministers) more accountable (particularly in financial matters) to the Parliament.
• They also help the Parliament to discuss the budget more effectively.

Other important facts –

• All the Ministries or Departments of the Central Government shall be governed by the 24 Standing Committees.
• Each standing committee consists of 31 members(21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha). The members of the Lok Sabha (or Rajya Sabha) are nominated by the Speaker (or Chairman) from amongst its own members.
• A Minister cannot be appointed to any of the DRSCs and if a member of a DRSC becomes a minister, he ceases to be a member of that committee.
• Each standing committee’s term of office is one year from the date of establishment.
• Out of the 24, 8 DRSCs work under the Rajya Sabha and 16 DRSCs under the Lok Sabha.