Isabella Carter
The Indian Constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was made up of several committees. The Constituent Assembly was formed in 1947, after India gained independence from British rule, to create a constitution for free India. The most important committee was the Drafting Committee, which was chaired by Dr B.R. Ambedkar and included six other members. The Constituent Assembly held 11 sessions over 165 days, with 114 days spent on the Draft Constitution. Seventeen separate committees were constituted by the Constituent Assembly, including the Steering Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Committee on Fundamental Rights. There are also standing committees in the Indian Parliament, which are permanent and regular committees that are constituted according to the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of committees in the Constituent Assembly | 22 |
| First meeting | 29 August 1947 |
| Chairman | Dr B.R. Ambedkar |
| Number of members | 7 |
| Time taken to draft the constitution | 2 years, 11 months, and 17 days |
| Number of sessions held | 11 |
| Number of days spent on the consideration of the Draft Constitution | 165 |
| Date of first draft publication | 21 February 1948 |
| Date of final draft submission | 4 November 1948 |
| Date of approval | 26 November 1949 |
| Date of formal adoption | 26 January 1950 |
| Number of standing committees dealing with financial affairs | 3 |
| Number of members in the Estimates Committee | 30 |
| Number of Departmentally Related Standing Committees (DRSCs) | 24 |
| Number of members in each DRSC | 31 (21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha) |
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What You'll Learn
The Drafting Committee
The Constituent Assembly of India was formed to draft the constitution for free India. The Assembly was a sovereign body made up of many committees. The most important of these was the Drafting Committee, which was set up on 29 August 1947.
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Procedural Affairs Committees
The Constituent Assembly of India was formed to draft the constitution for free India. It was a sovereign body made up of 22 committees, with 10 committees handling procedural affairs and 12 handling substantive affairs. The procedural affairs committees were responsible for framing the rules of the Constituent Assembly, including rules for admission and resignation of members, conduct of business in the Assembly, and fixing salaries and allowances.
The Committee on the Rules of Procedure, also known as the Committee on Rules and Procedure, was one of the key procedural affairs committees. It was appointed by the Constituent Assembly on 10 December 1946, with Rajendra Prasad as its chairman. The committee included prominent figures such as Jagjivan Ram, Sarat Chandra Bose, Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, and G. Durgabai, among others.
The committee's primary task was to establish the rules of procedure for the Constituent Assembly and its various sections and committees. This included outlining the conduct of business, admission and resignation procedures, and determining salaries and allowances for all individuals involved in the Assembly's functioning. The rules drafted by the committee were adopted by the Assembly after a two-day discussion and were periodically revised until June 1949.
The procedural affairs committees played a crucial role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the Constituent Assembly and providing a framework for its operations. Their work laid the foundation for the Assembly to effectively carry out its historic task of drafting the Constitution of India.
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Substantive Affairs Committees
The Constituent Assembly of India was formed to draft the constitution for free India. It was a sovereign body made up of 22 committees that worked together to draft the constitution. Out of these 22 committees, 10 were on procedural affairs and 12 on substantive affairs.
The Committees of Substantive Affairs were responsible for dealing with diverse tasks of constitution-making. The substantive committees were made up of 31 members - 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. The members were nominated by the Speaker, Lok Sabha and the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, respectively.
The substantive committees were responsible for handling matters related to substantive affairs, which are the specific issues and subjects that the constitution addresses, such as fundamental rights, citizenship, and the structure and powers of the government. These committees worked to ensure that the constitution addressed a wide range of substantive issues and that the content was accurate and comprehensive.
The Committees of Substantive Affairs played a crucial role in the constitution-making process, as they provided detailed reports and recommendations that formed the basis of the final draft of the Indian Constitution. They worked in conjunction with the Drafting Committee, which was responsible for consolidating and finalising the constitution based on the reports submitted by the substantive committees.
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Public Accounts Committee
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a financial committee of the Indian Parliament. It is responsible for examining the annual audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), which are laid before the Parliament by the President. The PAC examines public expenditure from a legal and formal perspective to uncover technical irregularities and also from the viewpoint of the economy, prudence, wisdom, and propriety. The purpose of this is to expose instances of waste, loss, corruption, extravagance, inefficiency, and nugatory expenses. The PAC is empowered to act upon the C&AG's audit reports and keep a tab on the union government's expenses, but it cannot intervene in policy questions or limit expenses.
The PAC consists of a maximum of 22 members, 15 of whom are elected by the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament), and up to seven members from the Rajya Sabha (the upper house). The members are elected annually by the Parliament from among its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. This election method ensures equal representation for all members of Parliament. The chairperson is appointed by the Lok Sabha speaker and is selected from the opposition, typically the leader of the opposition. The term of office for members is one year.
The PAC played a significant role in exposing corruption and irregularities in the 2G spectrum case and the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scandal. In the 2G spectrum case, the C&AG reported a loss of ₹1.76 trillion (US$25 billion) due to alleged collusion between the telecom minister, A Raja, bureaucrats, and companies that misrepresented information in their applications for 2G licenses. The PAC summoned prominent individuals, including Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, and Niira Radia, a corporate lobbyist, regarding the case. In the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society case, the C&AG revealed how select officials abused their power to acquire prime government land for personal gain, resulting in undue benefits of ₹1.86 trillion (US$26 billion) to private players in coal block allocations.
The PAC was first conceived in 1921 following the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. Since its inception, the PAC has undergone changes in its composition and leadership. Initially, during the British colonial government, the finance member of the executive council chaired the committee. After India gained independence in 1947, the chairperson was the finance minister until 1950, when India became a republic. From 1950 to 1967, the chairperson was chosen from the ruling party, and since 1967, the convention has been to select the chairperson from the opposition.
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Estimates Committee
The Indian Constitution was drafted by a constituent assembly comprising several committees. One of the most important committees was the Drafting Committee, headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar. The constituent assembly had 22 committees in total.
One of these committees was the Estimates Committee, which is a type of financial committee in the constitution of India. It is a permanent standing committee of selected members of parliament, constituted by the Parliament of India (the Lok Sabha). The Estimates Committee has the mandate to examine the budget estimates and suggest economies in public expenditure. It scrutinises the functioning of government ministries and departments in terms of expenditure and utilisation of funds. The committee chooses a few departments whose budget it wants to examine in a year, and the budget estimates of all the ministries/departments are examined over a period of years and not in one year.
The functions of the committee, as enshrined in Rule 310 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, are:
- To report what economies, improvements in organisation, efficiency or administrative reform, consistent with the policy underlying the estimates, may be effected.
- To suggest alternative policies to bring about efficiency and economy in administration.
- To examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates.
- To suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to Parliament.
- To select the estimates pertaining to a ministry or department of the central government or such of the statutory and other bodies of the central government as may seem fit to the committee.
- To examine matters of special interest that may arise in the course of its work or which are specially referred to it by the house or by the speaker.
The Estimates Committee is not required to take over the jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Undertakings. It reports to the Lok Sabha from time to time about its examination of the estimates. The committee cannot examine the budget estimates of any year on its own; the demand for grants can proceed without the report of the Estimates Committee. The power to examine the budget estimates is not an absolute power—the committee can only examine the budget after it has been voted upon and not before. The committee does not have the power to question the policies of the Parliament, and all its recommendations are advisory and non-binding.
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Frequently asked questions
Seventeen separate committees were constituted by the Constituent Assembly. The most important was the Drafting Committee, which was made up of seven members and headed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
A Standing Committee is a permanent and regular committee consisting of Members of Parliament. They are constituted according to the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. There are 24 department-related standing committees (DRSCs), each consisting of 31 members—21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.
The Public Accounts Committee examines various expenditure reports and accounts under the purview of the Parliament.
The Estimates Committee is a committee consisting of 30 members, elected every year by the Lok Sabha from among its members.
The Public Undertakings Committee analyses the accounts and workings of state-owned PSU firms, as well as monitoring their disinvestment policies.
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