Parliamentary control over executive in India: A Brief Note

In a parliamentary democracy like India, although the three branches of the State i.e. Legislative, Judiciary and Executive are theoretically separate, in practice the executive is a part of legislature. And since the executive is always in a majority, the control exercised over it by the legislature seems only weak.

Parliamentary Control

• The Constitution of India established a parliamentary form of government in which the Executive is held responsible to the Parliament for its acts.
• Parliament exercises control over Executive through debates and discussions on the floor. It has instruments like short duration discussions during question and zero-hours, calling attention motion, adjournment motion, no-confidence motion, censure motion, etc.
• It also supervises the activities of the Executive with the help of its committees like committee on government assurance, committee on subordinate legislation, committee on petitions, etc.
• The ministers are collectively responsible to the Parliament in general and to the Lok Sabha in particular. As a part of collective responsibility, there is individual responsibility, that is, each minister is individually responsible for the efficient administration of the ministry under his charge. They continue in office so long as they enjoy the confidence of the majority members in the Lok Sabha.

Limitations of Parliamentary control

But in reality, the control is not as effective as it ought to be. The following factors are responsible for this:

• The Parliament has neither time nor expertise to control the administration which has grown in volume as well as complexity.
• Parliament¡¦s financial control is hindered by the technical nature of the demands for grants, which require economic expertise. Also, most demands are guillotined.
• The financial committees like Public Accounts Committee do only post-facto audits, i.e. they examine the expenditure after it has already been incurred.
• The growth of ¡¥delegated legislation¡¦ has reduced the role of Parliament in making detailed laws and has increased the powers of bureaucracy.
• The frequent promulgation of ordinances by the president dilutes the Parliament’s power of legislation.
• Lack of strong and steady opposition in the Parliament, and a setback in the parliamentary behaviour and ethics, have also contributed to the ineffectiveness of legislative control over administration in India.

For healthy functioning of Indian political system, it is necessary that Parliament has an effective oversight over the executive. Steps like building a better image of parliament, improving the quality of members, strengthening the committee system etc will help in increasing effectiveness of parliamentary control over executive.