Approach

Introduction: Mention the principle of “collective responsibility”.

Body: Mention the mechanism of Parliamentary control over the executive and also mention the reasons for ineffective parliamentary control over the executive.

Conclusion: Suggest a way forward.

Answer

Parliamentary democracy in India is based on the principle of collective responsibility i.e. the executive is collectively responsible to the Parliament, particularly to the Lok Sabha (Article 75(3)).

The Parliament is able to ensure the accountability of the executive through various mechanisms like:

1. Parliamentary Debates & Discussions
2. No-Confidence Motions
3. Financial Control: Through Appropriation bill (Article 114), Public Accounts Committee and Cut motions.
4. Legislative Control: Through Parliamentary Committees and also ordinances needs to be laid before both houses of Parliament for its approval.
5. Zero Hour and Question Hour to elicit information from ministers.

Reasons for the Ineffectiveness of Parliamentary control recently:

1. Lack of effective opposition: As in both the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha (LS) no opposition political party was able to get the designation of Leader of opposition. Consequently, the government pushed through 20 bills mostly without discussion in the monsoon session of parliament, in 2021(as per PRSindia).
2. Increased resorting to ordinance route: In the 1950s, central ordinances were issued at an average of 7.1 per year but it has seen a spike,16 in 2019 and 15 in 2020. This is undermining the role of the legislature. For example, Indian Medical Commission Amendment ordinance was promulgated in 2018 and again in 2019.
3. Delegated Legislation - In this the executive has to formulate detailed provisions within the framework of law provided to it by the legislature. This system adds considerably to the powers of the executive and correspondingly weakens the status of the legislature.
4. Fewer bills being referred to Parliamentary Committees: The share of bills referred to committees has drastically decreased since 2014. About 60% and 71% of the bills were referred to committees in the 14th and 15th LS, whereas in the 16th and 17th LS, it was reduced to 25% and 13%, respectively.
5. Lack of debates and discussions: About 18% of bills were introduced and passed in the same session during the 15th LS, whereas it increased to 33% and 69% in the 16th and 17th LS, respectively. Thus, the average time spent discussing a bill dropped from 213 minutes in 2019 to 85 minutes in 2021.
6. Lack of Intra-party dissent: The possibility of intra-party dissent within Parliament has been stamped out by virtue of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. As it penalises disobedience of the party whip with disqualification from the House altogether.

Ways to ensure effective Parliamentary control over the executive

1. Opposition days: They are a popular measure in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. It is a mechanism whereby certain days during the session are allocated for the opposition parties to set the agenda of the house. This practice of ‘Opposition days’ needs to become a part of legislative sessions in India.
2. Reduce resorting to the ordinance route: Ordinances should be used to tackle exigencies when the legislature is not in session. The governments, both at the Centre and States should check this practice and should uphold the doctrine of separation of powers.
3. Check Delegated legislation: In this regard, the legislature should clearly outline the framework of a law and the parliamentary committee on subordinate legislation should effectively scrutinize whether the executive is properly exercising its power of subordinate legislation or not.
4. More bills be referred to Parliamentary committees: In order to enable the Parliament to do detailed scrutiny of the bills, get expert opinions regarding bills and hold the executive accountable based on the recommendations of the committees.
5. Effective debates: In order to do so the presiding officer needs to ensure that MP’s belonging to different political parties get adequate time to raise their concerns and it will also go a long way in reducing parliament disruptions.
6. Promote intra-party democracy: Anti-defection law should be applied only to confidence and no-confidence motions (Dinesh Goswami Committee on electoral reforms, 1990) or only when the government is in danger (Law Commission 170th report, 1999).

So, in order to uphold “Parliamentary democracy” the executive should adhere to the doctrine of separation of powers along with the adoption of the above solutions to strengthen the role of an individual MP.