ABSTRACT
Accountability of the Executive to Parliament is central to parliamentary form of Government. Therefore, an independent Secretariat directly under the guidance and control of the Presiding Officer of each House is envisaged in the Constitution. Much before the Constitution was adopted, the need for an independent Secretariat was felt as early as in August 1925 when Vithalbhai Patel was elected President (Speaker) of the Legislative Assembly. It was during his tenure that the idea of having an independent Parliament Secretariat got a concrete shape. During the course of the debates in the Constitutional Assembly, there was a unanimity about the constitutional provision for Secretariat of Parliament. Article 98 of the Constitution envisages that Secretariats of Parliament shall be independent of the Executive. The independent status of the Parliament Secretariat has been fortified by having separate rules for recruitment, suo-motu non-applicability of Central Government decisions to Parliament Secretariats and budgetary autonomy of Parliament Secretariats. The Secretariat of each House of Parliament serves its respective Presiding Officer, the House, the Committees and the Members in numerous ways. Each one of them requires the services of the Secretariat depending upon their priorities and responsibilities. It is argued that behind the effective functioning of each of them, there is a well-functioning Secretariat, which discharges its responsibility with characteristic non-partisanship and expertise. The Secretariats of the Parliament of India own a special responsibility for sustaining, standardizing and strengthening the dignity and authority of Parliament.
