Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has undertaken a reconstitution of eight Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs), a development announced by the Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday. Notably, senior Congress Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram has been appointed as a member of the 31-strong Home Affairs panel.
This appointment coincides with the panel’s ongoing deliberations on three proposed bills intended to replace key criminal justice laws—the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973, referred to as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya, and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, respectively. These bills were introduced to Parliament by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 11.
The DRSCs comprise 24 panels in total, with each committee composed of 31 members—21 from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. P Chidambaram’s inclusion followed the vacancy created by the retirement of Congress’s P Bhattacharya. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a Congress Lok Sabha MP, already holds membership in the Home panel, which is chaired by BJP MP Brij Lal.
A notification dated August 28 issued by the Rajya Sabha outlined, “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, the Rajya Sabha Chairman designated Congress MP Jairam Ramesh as the chair of the Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.
The six key parliamentary committees, namely Home, IT, Defence, External Affairs, Finance, and Health, are currently held by members of the BJP or its coalition partners.
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