The Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs is a Department-related Standing Committee (DRSC), which is a type of permanent institution within the Indian Parliament. It was constituted on April 8, 1993, as part of a wider set of DRSCs introduced to strengthen legislative oversight of the executive. The DRSC system itself was first established in August 1989 and was later re-structured in July 2004, increasing the total number of DRSCs from 17 to 24.
The Committee's primary mechanism is to scrutinize the foreign policy and decision-making of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It consists of 31 members: 21 drawn from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. Members are nominated by the Speaker and the Chairman, respectively, and a Minister is not eligible to be a member. The term of the committee does not exceed one year, after which it is reconstituted.
Its functions include examining the Demands for Grants of the MEA, reviewing bills referred to it, and selecting subjects for detailed examination. The Committee is an advisory body that reviews, questions, and suggests, but it does not formulate policy or take final decisions. The authority for the committee system is drawn from Article 105 and Article 118 of the Indian Constitution, which deal with the privileges of Members of Parliament and the Parliament's power to regulate its procedure.