THE RAJYA SABHA
A UNIQUE PARLIAMENTARY TRADITION: REFERRING BILLS FOR DOUBLE COMMITTEE SCRUTINY IN INDIA’S UPPER HOUSE
India’s Council of States, the Rajya Sabha, takes its law-making powers so seriously it has referred Bills for further committee review even though they have already been thoroughly examined by joint standing committees and passed by the lower House. A senior official of the upper House argues this is by no means an unnecessary duplication.
Shri Satya Narayana Sahu in New Delhi. Shri Sahu is Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. He served as an Officer on Special Duty to the late President of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan, and as a Director in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Shri Satya Sahu
The Rajya Sabha, the Council of States of the Indian Parliament, has many distinctive features in spite of its equal powers with the Lok Sabha (House of the People) in many fields including the passage of laws and amendments to statutes and to the constitution. It is a permanent Chamber not subject
58 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One
to dissolution. It has special powers to authorize Parliament to create an All-India Service or legislate on any matter enumerated in the state list by adopting a resolution as per the procedure prescribed by the constitution. It can approve the proclamation of an emergency promulgated by the President of India when the House of the People has been dissolved. Over the years, it has added
another dimension to those distinctive features by creating a unique parliamentary tradition and heralding a refreshing legacy of legislative scrutiny. On three occasions, it referred Bills to its select committees after they had been meticulously examined by the department-related parliamentary standing committees, which are composed of Members from both Houses of Parliament, and
passed by the House of the People. A question might be raised if the
Lok Sabha had referred any such Bill to its select committee after a department-related parliamentary standing committee of both Houses examined it and later the Rajya Sabha passed it. There is no such example in the annals of the Lok Sabha.
Additional committee scrutiny Several Bills passed by the Rajya Sabha had been referred to select committees of the Lok Sabha when it took up those Bills for consideration and passage. There is not any single example of a Bill which has been examined by the relevant department- related parliamentary standing committee and passed by the Rajya Sabha and later referred to the select committee of the Lok Sabha. The department-related
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