Which one of the following statements about Public Accounts Committee is correct?
- (a)The Committee consists of not more than 15 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha.
- (b)The Finance Minister is an ex officio member of the Committee.
- (c)A member of the Committee is given a term for one year.
- (d)The term of the office of the members of the Committee from the Rajya Sabha is extended even when they retire from the Rajya Sabha.
Correct — C, a member of the Committee is given a term for one year. Every member of the Public Accounts Committee holds office for one year and is then re-elected or replaced, which is why the Committee is reconstituted annually. The other three statements each break on a checkable number or rule. The Committee has twenty-two members — fifteen elected by the Lok Sabha and seven by the Rajya Sabha, all by proportional representation through the single transferable vote. A minister is barred from being elected to it, so the Finance Minister cannot sit on it in any capacity. And a Rajya Sabha member who retires from the House ceases to be a member of the Committee; nothing extends the term past that.
- (a)The Committee consists of not more than 15 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha. — The Rajya Sabha figure is wrong. Seven members come from the Upper House, not ten, giving a total strength of twenty-two.
- (b)The Finance Minister is an ex officio member of the Committee. — No minister can be elected to the Committee, and if a member becomes a minister he ceases to belong to it. The rule exists because the Committee's whole function is to examine how the executive spent money Parliament voted.
- (d)The term of the office of the members of the Committee from the Rajya Sabha is extended even when they retire from the Rajya Sabha. — Membership of the Committee depends on membership of the House. Retirement from the Rajya Sabha ends both together.
The Public Accounts Committee is the oldest of the parliamentary financial committees, set up in 1921 under the Government of India Act, 1919. It examines the appropriation accounts, the finance accounts and the audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and it asks whether the money Parliament granted was spent on what Parliament granted it for. Since 1967 its chairperson has by convention been drawn from the opposition and is appointed by the Speaker.
Three financial committees are examined as a set and are easiest kept apart by their numbers. The Public Accounts Committee has 15 plus 7; the Estimates Committee has 30, all from the Lok Sabha, with no Rajya Sabha representation at all; the Committee on Public Undertakings has 15 plus 7 as well. All three run on a one-year term. The Public Accounts Committee works after the money is spent, the Estimates Committee before, which is why one is called the post-mortem committee and the other the continuous economy committee.
- Strength: 22 members — 15 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha, all elected by proportional representation with a single transferable vote.
- Term of a member: one year.
- A minister cannot be elected to the Committee; election to a ministry ends membership.
- The chairperson is appointed by the Speaker and, by convention since 1967, comes from the opposition.
- The Estimates Committee, by contrast, has 30 members drawn wholly from the Lok Sabha.
The distractors in this item are all built by altering one of these numbers, so the numbers are the preparation.
- Carrying the Estimates Committee's figure of 30 into the Public Accounts Committee.
- Assuming the Finance Minister must be involved because the subject is money.
- Stretching a member's term to the life of the House; every one of these committees is annual.
A which-one-is-correct item where three options are numerically wrong. Learn the composition figures and the item collapses.
Consider the following statements : The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts 1. Consists of not more than 25 Members of the Lok Sabha 2. Scrutinizes appropriation and finance accounts of the Government 3. Examines the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
Built on the same trap. Its first statement inflates the Lok Sabha share to twenty-five where the real figure is fifteen, and its other two describe what the Committee actually does.
Which one of the following statements regarding Public Accounts Committee is correct?
- (a) It consists of fifteen members from Lok Sabha and seven members from Rajya Sabha
- (b) It consists of twenty members from Lok Sabha and ten members from Rajya Sabha
- (c) The term of members of Public Accounts Committee is five years
- (d) Finance Minister is the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee
Answer(a) It consists of fifteen members from Lok Sabha and seven members from Rajya Sabha
The previous year's CAPF paper asked the same question with the correct and incorrect halves swapped. There the composition was the true statement and the one-year term was replaced by a false five-year one; here the term is true and the composition false.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The total strength of the Public Accounts Committee is
- (a)15
- (b)22
- (c)25
- (d)30
Answer(b) 22 — fifteen from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which parliamentary committee has no members from the Rajya Sabha?
- (a)Public Accounts Committee
- (b)Estimates Committee
- (c)Committee on Public Undertakings
- (d)Business Advisory Committee
Answer(b) Estimates Committee — all thirty of its members are drawn from the Lok Sabha.