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

K. Santhanam

Prevention of Corruption

2. U.C. Banerjee Commission : Enquiry into Godhra carnage

(railways)

3. Sarkaria Commission : Centre-State relations

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

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. Alagh Committee : Civil Service Examinations

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. Kelkar Committee : First committee on backward castes

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

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

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 VicePresidents 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 reinvestigate 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 knowledgeintensive 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.