Does the Legislative Committee System Effectively Carry out Functions of the House?

Abstract

This paper argues that the legislative committee system in India does not carry out the law making function of the parliament effectively but it is effective in discharging its function of holding the executive accountable. Analysing both behavioural and structural issues, it is suggested that the interplay of both these factors make it impossible for committee to mirror the preferences of the house. This is aggravated by the fact that most committee reports are adopted without adequate consideration for the want of time or the poor quality of deliberation on the floor of the house. On the other hand, these committee structurally better suited to provide in depth analysis of proposals of the executive and hence do perform the accountability function of the parliament effectively. The paper suggests that the speaker ought to be given overriding powers to look into the constitution of committee, that the proceedings of the committees should be made available for public scrutiny and that the quoram for committee proceedings should be increased to at least half the members as opposed to the present requirement of one-third.

Keywords: Legislative committee, functions of parliament