As Parliament turns 75, the ‘backbone’ that keeps it going — its secretariat

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As Parliament turns 75, the ‘backbone’ that keeps it going — its secretariat

We can look at the 75-year journey of our Parliament through many lenses. One could be statistical. Like the number of days that Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha worked, and the number of laws they made. Or, it could be about the Members of Parliament (MPs) whose debates shaped legislation, cornered the government and voiced the nation’s conscience. But discussion about our Parliament’s rich history can only be complete by highlighting the behind-the-scenes, painstaking work done by women and men of the Parliament secretariat.

This professional body advises presiding officers of the two Houses, provides MPs with information to aid their legislative interventions and ensures that the legislature functions smoothly. It has also been the custodian of procedure, precedent, legislative knowledge and their transfer across parliamentary terms. If Parliament is a body, the secretariat is its backbone.

A stand-off and closed access to visitor galleries

Vithalbhai Patel, who in 1925 became the first elected Speaker (then called the President) of the Central Assembly, championed the idea of a separate secretariat for the legislature. He believed that if the office of the Speaker had to work independently, it needed a staff directly under its control. Patel also pushed for a separate security establishment for the legislature. In 1929, after Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs into the Central Assembly, the British administration wanted to place police officers to control access to the Parliament building.

Patel believed that Assembly precincts came under the Speaker’s authority and that any interference by the government would be an affront to the power of the legislature’s presiding officer. There was a stand-off between the Speaker and the administration. Patel closed access to the visitor galleries until the government agreed to place security arrangements under the Speaker’s control. His perseverance created a separate office for the legislature in 1929, independent of and unconnected with the government.

By then, a cadre of specialised Parliament staff had started emerging as legislatures evolved in our country.

Perhaps the first set of such individuals were the parliamentary reporters. These individuals are responsible for accurately reporting legislative proceedings. They sit in in the House, close to the presiding officer’s chair. Within a few hours of the end of a parliamentary sitting, their work makes hundreds of pages of speeches of MPs, ministerial statements and observations by the Chair are made available to the public.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha rules of procedure require that the “Secretary-General shall cause to be prepared a full report of the proceedings of the House at each of its sittings and shall, as soon as practicable, publish it in such form and manner” as directed by the presiding officer. The rule’s genesis lies in an 1861 communication from the Secretary of State for India to the Governor General.

It mentioned the “evil which has been caused by the publication of speeches delivered in the Legislative Council, and the impression made by them on the native population … I think it is of the highest importance that correct reports of the proceedings under the authority of the Council itself be sent to the public, and I request that you will take into your consideration measures for ensuring this very desirable object”.

As a result, parliamentary reporters started producing an “abstract of the observation of members”. With the advent of shorthand, it changed to “abstract of proceedings”. And by the time the Central Assembly started functioning in 1921, the reporters kept a verbatim record of its proceedings. And it continues till today. A parliamentary reporter’s work is demanding, as every MP has a distinct speaking style. Protesting MPs compounds their work’s challenging nature. A battery of reporters take turns, accurately capturing every word that members speak on the House floor.

The task of professionalising the Parliament secretariat and establishing its standard operating procedures fell on Maheshwar Nath Kaul, a lawyer who joined the legislative assembly office in 1937. He was administratively sharp and an ardent believer in the parliamentary system. Kaul climbed the ranks to become the secretary of the Constituent Assembly. He was instrumental in shaping the constitutional provisions related to legislatures and pushed for the independence of its secretariat.

From Hindi and English to interpretation in 22 languages

Post-independence, he assumed charge of the Lok Sabha secretariat and created Parliament’s research and reference service. Its purpose was to provide members with information they might require to discuss Bills and other subjects under discussion in Parliament. Kaul also knew that Parliament and its MPs would need more office space. In 1956, he started pushing for separate buildings for the secretariat, library, committees and MPs.

The changing profile of MPs meant that the Parliament secretariat had to keep adding to its repertoire of services. Since the first Lok Sabha, members demanded simultaneous interpretation services in the chamber. However, a lack of trained personnel hampered the roll-out of this facility. The secretariat finally started providing Hindi and English real-time interpretation in 1964. It is another demanding task, requiring interpreters to be familiar with parliamentary business, and proficient in vocabulary, grammar, language nuances, literature, idioms and humour. The Parliament secretariat now provides MPs with simultaneous interpretation of 22 languages.

The nature of parliamentary work meant different work streams in the Parliament secretariats. In 1974, a committee of MPs recommended structuring the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats into 11 functional areas, like legislative (dealing with the work of the Houses), library research and information, verbatim reporting, editorial and translation, interpretation, printing and publication, and watch and ward (renamed Parliament Security) service. With administrative consolidation, the roughly 2,200 Lok Sabha and 1,500 Rajya Sabha secretariat officers are organised into eight services. The Constitution specifies that Parliament could make a law to regulate the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to the secretarial staff of Parliament. But Parliament has made no such law; therefore, these are done according to the rules made by the presiding officers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Two Secretary-Generals, one for Lok Sabha and the other for Rajya Sabha, are at the helm of the respective secretariats. The presiding officers of the two Houses have discretion in appointing the Secretary-General. For example, the Rajya Sabha recruitment order specifies that the Chairperson of Rajya Sabha shall make the appointment to the post of the Secretary-General. The order also empowers the presiding officer of Rajya Sabha to fill senior positions like that of Secretary/Additional Secretary by “persons of equivalent stature and experience from other sources on contract basis”.

Secretary-Generals aid and advise the presiding officers of the two Houses in discharging their constitutional and statutory responsibilities. The position of the Secretary-General has dual obligations. The Parliamentary Pay Committee, in its 2009 report, described the role of the Secretary-General as one that “… renders advice to the Presiding Officer as well as the House on all matters relating to the running of the House and its Committees and the second being the Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the House. In the latter role, he acts as the head of the administration”.

The position was earlier equivalent to the post of the Secretary of the Government of India. But considering its importance in 1990, the pay scale, position and status of the post of Secretary-General was made equivalent to that of the post of the Cabinet Secretary in the Government of India.

But while the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats are independent of the government, the same is not valid for state legislature secretariats. As Parliament considers its 75-year journey, it will be helpful for MPs to recognise the contributions of the secretariat and ensure its further strengthening.

Chakshu Roy – 2023-09-18 14:07

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