Committee of Parliament

• The Parliamentary Committees are formed to deal with the various types of matters for which the parliament can not deal due to their large volume and play a vital role not merely in law-making, but also in the day-to-day business of the House
• Limited time with the Parliament: As the Parliament meets only during sessions
• The making of law requires an in-depth study of the issue under consideration. This thus requests more consideration and time
• Generally there are two types of parliamentary committees formed: Standing committees which are permanent in nature and ad hoc committees which are temporary in nature

Functions performed by Parliamentary Committees: 

• Reading up on the requests for awards made by different services
• Investigating use caused by different divisions
• Researching instances of defilement
• Beginning around 1983, India has fostered an arrangement of parliamentary standing boards
• There are north of twenty such departmentally related boards of trustees
• Standing Committees are regulated by different divisions, their financial plan, their use and bills that surface in the House identifying with the office

Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs):

• It is one of the types of ad hoc committees, which can be formed by parliament, wherein one house adopts the motion and other agrees to it.  The members of Joint Parliamentary Committees are from both houses but the lok sabha members are double in number compared to Rajya Sabha
• They can be set up for the purpose of discussing a particular bill, like the joint committee to discuss the bill, or for the purpose of investigating financial irregularities
• Individuals who form part of  these advisory groups are chosen from the two Houses

Importance:

• A JPC is authorised to collect evidence in oral or written form or demand documents in connection with the matter
• The committee can invite interested parties for inquiry and summon people to appear before it
• No bill can become law, and no financial plan will be authorised except if supported by the Parliament. In any case, the Parliament seldom dismisses the ideas made by the advisory groups

Regulation of Parliament by itself:

• Parliament as debating forum: It is through debates that the parliament performs all its vital functions which must be meaningful and orderly so that the functions of the Parliament are carried out smoothly and its dignity is intact
• The actual Constitution has made specific arrangements to guarantee a smooth lead of business
• The directing official of the assembly is the last expert in issues of controlling the matter of the council
• Another way to control the behaviour of members

Anti-defection law

• There was an understanding among the gatherings that a lawmaker who is chosen on one party’s ticket should be limited from deserting to another party
• Constitutional Amendment (52nd Constitutional Amendment Act) in 1985: This is known as the anti-defection amendment. It has also been subsequently modified by the 91st amendment
• It allows a group of MP/MLAs to join (i.e. merge with) another political party without inviting the penalty for defection. And it does not penalize political parties for encouraging or accepting defecting legislators
• Now at least two-thirds of the members of a party have to be in favour of a “merger” for it to have validity in the eyes of the law
• The members disqualified under the law can stand for elections from any political party for a seat in the same House

Constitutional amendments 

Amending the basic rulebook of a country from which the government draws its power is called a constitutional amendment. In India till today our constitution has been amended 105 times for various articles added and deleted. In India our constitution is amended in three ways. 

• In the first type of constitutional amendment each house of parliament can pass the law by simple majority
• In the second type of constitutional amendment each house of parliament must pass the law with special majority
• In the third case both houses of parliament must pass the law with special majority and half of the state assemblies must ratify the law

Conclusion 

Parliament’s rule book has many provisions to make smooth office transactions, one of the provisions is setting up parliamentary committees to evaluate the matter with details.  Parliamentary committees resolve the matter on which is not discussed with details in parliament and these committees submits their reports to parliament. In India there are many matters such as finance, agriculture, mining, etc. on which the parliamentary committees set up to evaluate the matter. Sometimes constitutional amendments may also be referred to these committees to examine the matter in depth. Joint parliamentary committees formed by the members of both the houses hence interest of both the houses considered resolving the matters.