Important committees and commissions in India

What is the difference between a committee and a commission?


A committee is a group of people who meet and deliberate according to fixed rules in order to make a decision or produce a document as a group. A commission is a group of people who are entrusted (that is the etymology) by a government to carry out a task. Sometimes the task is a specific one (like ascertaining a particular fact or resolving a particular problem) and sometimes the task is more long-term (like the SEC, that is, Securities and Exchange Commission). A commission is usually distinct from other kinds of agency in two ways: it has no single, permanent administrator, and it has no independent or constitutional authority of its own; it operates under the authority of another part of the government. Of course, a commission can be a committee (like the 9/11 Commission), but very few committees are commissions, and some commissions are not committees.


1. Palekar Tribunal      :     Journalists’ Pay reforms


2. U.C. Banerjee Commission    :    Enquiry into Godhra carnage (railways)


3. Sarkaria Commission  :   Centre-State relations


4. Srikrishna Commission  :   1992 Bombay riots


5. Thakkar Commission  :   Indira Gandhi assassination case


6. Phukan Commission & Saharya Committee  :   Tehelka tapes


7. Malimath Commission  :   Criminal Justice


8. Upendra Commission  :   Inquiry on rape and murder Thangjam Manorama Devi


9. Malhotra Committee  :   Insurance Reforms


10. Janaki Ram Committee  :   Security scam


11. Ajay Vikram Singh Committee  :   Faster promotions in army


12. Rajinder Sachar Committee {1}  :   Companies and MRPT Act


13. Rajindar Sachar Committee {2}  :   Report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslims of India


14. Jyoti Basu Committee  :   Report on Octroi abolition


15 Balwant Rai Mehta Committee  :  Recommendations on decentralization system


16. Sawant Committee  :   Enquiry on corruption, charges against ministers & Anna Hazare


17. Chelliah Committee  :   Eradicating black money


18. Kothari Commission  :   Educational reforms


19. Wanchoo Committee  :   Tax enquiry


20. Bhanu Pratap Singh Committee  :   Agriculture


21. Aggarwal Committee  :   Nepotism in granting petrol pump, LPG connections


22. Rangarajan Committee  :   Reforms in private sector


23. Naresh Chandra Committee  :   Corporate governance


24. Chakravarti Committee  :   Banking sector reforms


25. Rekhi Committee  :   Structure of indirect taxation


26. G.V.Ramakrishna Committee  :   Disinvestment in PSU shares


27. Kelkar Committee  :   First committee on backward castes


28. P.C.Hotha Committee  :   Restructuring of civil services


29. Justice B.N.Kirpal Committee  :   1st chairman National Forest Commission


30. Godbole Committee   :  Enron Power Project


31. J.C.Kumarappa Committee  :   Congress agrarian Reforms Committee


32. Swaminathan Committee  :   Population policy


33. Rangarajan Committee  :   Statistics


34. Wardha Committee  :   Inquiry on murder of Graham Staines


35. N.N. Vohra Committee  :   Criminalization of politics


36. Kelkar Committee {2}  :   Direct-Indirect Taxes


37. Alagh Committee  :   Civil Service Examinations


38. Abid Hussain Committee  :   Recommendations on Small scale industries


39. Narasimham Committee  :   Banking sector reforms


40. Chelliah Committee  :  Tax reforms


41. Mashelkar Committee  :   National Auto Fuel Policy


42. Boothalingam Committee   :   Recommendations on integrated wages, income and price policy


43. Omkar Goswami Committee  :   Industrial sickness


44. Yashpal Committee  :   Review of School Education system


45. Ram Nandan Prasad Committee  :   Constitution of creamy layers among Backward Castes


46. Kelkar Committee{3}   :  Enquiry on Kargil defense deals.


47. M.M. Punchhi Commission  :   Centre-State Relations [note- this committee has been set up recently- after the sad demise of Justice (Retd.) Sarkaria]


48. Thorat Committee  :   Caste-based discrimination against students in AIIMS


49. R.K.Raghavan Committee  :   Ragging in colleges


51. James Lyngdoh Committee- Student politics and student-body elections in colleges.


52. E.M.S. Nachiappan Committee  :   Reforms in the higher judiciary


53. Soli Sorabjee Committee  :   Police Reforms [it was constituted after the Judgement of the Supreme Court in Parkash Singh vs Union of India (2006)]


54. Ganguli Committee  :   Review of health facility planning and healthcare engineering and management


55. Percy Mistry Committee  :   Making Mumbai an IFC (International Financial Centre)


56. K.T. Thomas Committee- to look into ways of enhancing the effectives of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act


57. Fali S. Nariman Committee- Accountability and damages with regard to destruction of public property


58. Satwant Reddy Committee- review of laws relating to registration of pharmaceutical drugs and clinical trials


59. Raghuram C. Rajan Committee- financial sector reforms


60. Shah Commission (1966)- reorganisation of States


61. Tarkunde Committee- composition of the Election Commission and other electoral reforms


62. Dinesh Goswami Committee- electoral reforms


63. G.V.K. Rao Committee (1985) - set up by the planning commission in 1985, to look into the Administrative Arrangement for Rural Development and poverty Alleviation Programmes.


64. Butler Committee  :   Relation between Indian states & paramount power (the Queen of Britain)


65. Hurtog Committee  :   Growth of British India education-its effects


66. Muddiman Committee  :   Working of Diarchy as in Montague Chelmsford reforms

1. Central Information Commission

Receiving and inquiring into complaints from aggrieved persons.

2. Central Vigilance Commission

Probing offences by Central Government officers, Officers of societies, corporation and local authority under the Central Government.

3. Commission for Centre-State Relations

Review of working of existing arrangements between Union and States i.e. power, functions, and responsibilities in all spheres.

4. Commission of Enquiry (Tehelka Commission)

To enquire into the definite matter of public importance with the power of civil court.

5. Commission of Enquiry into Oil-for-Food Scam

To inquire into the Oil-for-Food Scam.

6. Commission on Criminal Justice

Reformation of criminal justice system, compensation to victims, and effective investment etc.

7. Committee on Reforming Bureaucracy

Best practices of Bureaucracy

8. Competition Commission of India

To curb monopolies, to ensure fair competition in India by prohibiting adverse trade practices and to pass order for granting interim relief and to impose penalties in case of defaults.

9. Delimitation Commission

Readjustment of the allocation of seats in Lok Sabha to several States and total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State.

10. Election Commission

Preparation of the electoral rolls, direction, superintendence, and control of elections to Parliament and State Legislatures, recognition of political parties and allotment of symbols and also conducting elections to offices of Presidents and Vice-Presidents of India.

11. Finance Commission

Distribution of financial resources between Union and States, proceeds from taxes, principles governing grants-in-aid to revenue of States out of consolidated fund of India, etc.

12. Justice Nanavati Commission

To inquire into 1984 Riot case (Indira Gandhi Assassination Riot).

13. Kalelkar Commission

Adhering to Article 340, the First Backward Classes Commission was set up by a presidential order on January 29, 1953

14. Khosla Commission

A one-man commission headed by Justice GD Khosla established July 1970 to re-investigate the circumstances surrounding the supposed death of Subhas Chandra Bose. The commission reached the same conclusions as Shah Nawaz Committee.

15. Law Commission

To suggest for implementation and development in constitutional and legal matters including the human way of death penalty

16. Liberhan Commission

To enquire into demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

17. Mandal Commission

Headed by Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine "backwardness."

18. Mukherjee Commission

A one-man board of Justice Manoj Mukherjee, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India which was instituted in 1999 to enquire into the controversy surrounding the reported death of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945.

19. National Commission for Backward Classes

Inclusion of castes as backward class in OBC lists and to deal with the related matters.

20. National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNSNT)

A national commission set under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, to study various developmental aspects of denotified and nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes in India.

21. National Commission for Scheduled Castes

To investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the SCs, to inquire into specific complaints on deprivation of rights of SCs to participate and advice on the planning process of socioeconomic development of SCs.

22. National Commission for Scheduled Tribes

To investigate and monitor the matters relating to safeguards provided for STs, to inquire into specific complaints on deprivation of rights of STs.

23. National Commission for Women

Investigation and examination of all matters relating to safeguards provided for women, take up cases relating to women to other authorities and to look into complaints relating to deprivation of women's rights.

24. National Commission on Labour

To review and suggest improvement of labour standard.

25. National Commission on Minorities

To evaluate the progress of the development of minorities under the Union and States, look into complaints regarding the deprivation of minorities rights.

26. National Commission to Review the Working of Constitution of India

Study of working of Constitution. in key area.

27. National Forest Commission

Review and assessment of existing forest policy, legal frame work on scientific and economic point of examination of current statutes of forest administration and institutions and policy on development and wild life management.

28. National Human Rights Commission

Receiving complaint from victim, directions to Government, etc. and rehabilitation to victims.

29. National Judicial Commission

Appointment of Judges in high judiciary and transfer of High Court Judges.

30. National Knowledge Commission

On 13 June, 2005 , the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, constituted the National Knowledge Commission, as a think-tank charged with considering possible policy that might sharpen India's comparative advantage in the knowledge-intensive service sectors. The Commission was to recommend reform of the education sector, research labs, and intellectual property legislation; as well as consider whether the Government could itself upgrade its use of the latest techniques to make its workings more transparent. The NKC website was launched in February 2006.

31. Planning Commission

To oversee the 5 years planning program for the economic development etc. in India.

32. Sahariya Commission

To review the POTA implementation in Centre and various States.

33. Sarkaria Commission

It was set up in June 1983 to examine the relationship and balance of power between state and central governments in the country and suggest changes within the framework of Constitution of India. It was headed by Justice Rajinder Singh Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India.

34. Shah Commission

inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah

35. Shah Nawaz

Committee was an enquiry committee established in 1956 to investigate the supposed death of Indian Subhas Chandra Bose in August 1945. The Committee included Shah Nawaz Khan.

36. States Reorganisation Commission

constituted by the Central Government of India under the States Reorganisation Act and consisted of Hon. Fazal Ali, K.M. Panikker, and H.N. Kunzru. The Report submitted by the Committee in 1955 known as SRC Report went in to the problems of Telangana and Andhra regions, and the arguments for and against the merger of two regions.