Consultative Committees | 22 Nov 2019

Why in News

Farooq Abdullah and Pragya Thakur have been nominated as members of the consultative committee of Parliament for the Ministry of Defence.

  • The committee comprises 12 members from the Lok Sabha and 9 from the Rajya Sabha and is chaired by the Defence Minister.

Consultative Committees

  • Formation
    • These committees are constituted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
    • These are normally constituted after the new Lok Sabha is constituted.
    • This implies that these committees stand dissolved upon dissolution of every Lok Sabha and thus, are reconstituted upon constitution of each Lok Sabha.
  • Composition
    • The guidelines regarding the composition, functions and procedures of these committees are formulated by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
    • The same Ministry also makes arrangements for holding their meetings both during the session and the intersession period of Parliament.
    • These consist of members of both the Houses of Parliament.
    • However, the membership of these committees is voluntary and is left to the choice of the members and the leaders of their parties.
    • The maximum membership of a committee is 30 and the minimum is 10.
  • Functions
    • These committees are attached to various ministries/departments of the Central Government.
    • The Minister/Minister of State in charge of the Ministry concerned acts as the chairman of the consultative committee of that ministry.
    • These provide a forum for informal discussions between the ministers and the members of Parliament on policies and programmes of the government and the manner of their implementation.
  • The Consultative Committees are not Parliamentary Committees.
    • A parliamentary committee means a committee that:
      • Is appointed or elected by the House or nominated by the Speaker/Chairman.
      • Works under the direction of the Speaker/Chairman.
      • Presents its report to the House or to the Speaker/Chairman.
      • Has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha.

Source: TH