Indian Commissions

Indian Commissions

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee

The Government of India appointed a committee in January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953) and to suggest measures for their better working. The Chairman of this committee was Balwant Rai G Mehta. The committee submitted its report in November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of 'democratic decentralization' which finally came to be known as Panchayati Raj.

The specific recommendations of the committee are:

1. Establishment of a 3-tier Panchayati Raj system-Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and Zila Parishad at the district level. These tiers should be organically linked through a device of indirect elections.

 Shah Nawaz Committee

The Shah Nawaz Committee was an enquiry committee established in 1956 to investigate the controversies surrounding the supposed death of Indian war time leader Subhas Chandra Bose in August 1945. The Committee included Shah Nawaz Khan and also included A C Moitra and Suresh Chandra Bose. The committee was appointed in December 1955 and began its work in April the next year. It submitted its report in July 1956. However, the committee was notable in two of the members, Moitra and Bose, submitting was has since come to be called the "Dissident Report" that differed from the official report of the committee submitted by Khan to the Indian Government.

 Mukherjee Commission

The Mukherjee Commission refers to the one-man board of Mr. 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.

 Finance Commission of India

The Constitution of India provides for the establishment of a Finance Commission for the purpose of allocation of certain resources of revenue between the Union and the State Governments. The Finance Commission is established under Article 280 of the Constitution of India by the President.

Chairman: Vijay Kelkar 2010-2015

 Investment commission of India

The Investment commission of India is a three-member commission set up in the Ministry of Finance in December 2004 by the Government of India. Mr. Ratan Tata is Chairman and Mr. Deepak Parekh and Dr. Ashok Ganguly are members.

 States Reorganisation Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission was 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.

 Shah Commission

Shah Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Government of India in 1977 to inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah.

 Nanavati commission

The Justice G.T. Nanavati commission was established by the Indian Government in 2000 to investigate the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots.

The report was 185 pages long. The commission submitted its final report in February 2004 detailing accusations and evidence against senior members of the Delhi wing of the then ruling Congress Party, including Jagdish Tytler, later a Cabinet Minister, MP Sajjan Kumar and late minister H.K.L. Bhagat. They were accused of instigating mobs to avenge the assassination of Indira Gandhi by killing Sikhs in their constituencies.

The Commission also held the then Delhi police commissioner S.C. Tandon directly responsible for the riots.

 Mandal Commission

The Mandal Commission in India was established in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward." It was headed by Indian parliamentarian 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." In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action practice under Indian law whereby members of lower castes (known as Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes and Tribes) were given exclusive access to a certain portion of government jobs and slots in public universities, and recommended changes to these quotas, increasing them by 27% to 49.5%.

 National Commission for Minorities

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is a body constituted by the Government of India to monitor and evaluate the progress of people classified as minorities by the Indian government. Essentially the minorities in India consist of followers of all religions other than Hinduism and weaker sections in the Hindu community. The Commission is also referred to as the Minority Commission. It was formed as a result of an act of the Indian Parliament in 1993.

The current commission constituted in 2006 (fifth to date) consists of:

Mohammad Shafi Qureshi - Chairperson

Michael P Pinto - Vice Chairperson

Harcharan Singh Josh - Member

Lama Chosphel Zotpa - Member

Dileep Padagaonkar - Member

Zoya Hasan - Member

The commission also employs other officers as well.

National Commission for Women

The National Commission for Women (NCW) is a statutory body for women, set up in 1992, by Government of India, under specific provisions, National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Govt.of India.), of the Indian Constitution .

` The present head of the Commission is Girija Vyas.

National Human Rights Commission of India

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India is an autonomous statutory body established on October 12, 1993, under the provisions of The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (TPHRA). The Commission is in conformity with the Paris Principles - a broad set of principles agreed upon by a number of nations for the promotion and protection of human rights, in Paris in October 1991