The Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday has reconstituted 8 Department–related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs). The re-constitution has been done by Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar including the appointment of senior Congress Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram to the 31-member home panel.Noteworthy is that Chidambaram has been appointed as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs at a time when the panel is discussing the three proposed bills that are aimed at replacing the criminal justice laws–Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita respectively. The three bills were introduced by union minister Amit Shah in the Parliament on August 11.There are 24 department-related standing committees (DRSCs). Each of these committees has 31 members – 21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha.The appoint of P Chidambarams has come after the retirement of Congresss P Bhattacharya.A notification, dated August 28, issued by the Rajya Sabha, said, “The Chairman, Rajya Sabha, has in consultation with the Speaker, Lok Sabha, re-constituted the eight Department–related Parliamentary Standing Committees, coming under the administrative jurisdiction of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, w.e.f. September 13, 2023, as follows.”In addition to this, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has been appointed as the chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change by Rajya Sabha.Meanwhile, the chairs of six major parliamentary committees that are Home, IT, Defence, External Affairs, Finance and Health are all with the BJP or its allies.
