The Departmentally Related Standing Committees are some special type committees that examine bills, budgets and policies of ministries. DRSCs were first formed in 1993. There are 24 department-related standing committees (DRSCs).
Each of these committees have 31 members – 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. These members are to be nominated by the Speaker of Lok Sabha or the Chairman of Rajya Sabha respectively.
The term of office of these committees does not exceed one year. These committees are serviced either by Lok Sabha secretariat or the Rajya Sabha secretariat, depending on who has appointed the chairman of that committee.
DRSCs perform three important functions: examine Bills referred to them; select specific topics related to the ministries and examine implementation by the Government; and examine the budgetary outlays of the departments.
DRSCs help Parliament in managing its business better. A committee of 30 is in a better position to examine a topic in-depth than by an assembly of 700.
They enable input from experts and those who may be directly affected by a policy or legislation. For example, the DRSCs often invite comments from the public and call people to testify.
Members can discuss issues and reach consensus in the committees without worrying about constituency pressures as it is outside direct public glare.
Anti-defection law does not apply to committees — therefore, decisions can be made out of the party lines.
Finally, due to specified areas members are able to build their expertise in that, which helps them scrutinise issues more thoroughly.
During the year 1989 – 8th Lok Sabha the Rules Committee considered and approved a proposal that three subject committees, on
The rules relating to these committees were finally approved by the House and the committees were formally constituted with effect from 18 August, 1989.
The Reports of Rules Committees of the 10th Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adopted by the two Houses on 29 March, 1993 paved the way for the setting up of the 17 departmentally related standing committees covering under their jurisdiction all the Ministries/Departments of the Union Government.
These DRSCs replaced the earlier three subject committees constituted in August, 1989. The 17 departmentally related standing committees were formally constituted with effect from April, 1993.
After experiencing the working of the DRSC system for over a decade, the system was re-structured in July, 2004 wherein the number of DRSCs was increased from 17 to 24.
