Paid Late, Answered by No One: The Federal Gap Behind the PAC's Privilege Threat

One Scheme, Two Governments, No One Answering Article

105(3) says the powers, privileges and immunities of each House of Parliament and its committees are those defined by law. Parliament has never passed that law, so the privileges remain uncodified. On 15 October 2026 the Public Accounts Committee relied on those uncodified powers in an unusual way: it decided to seek a privilege motion against the Chief Secretaries of six States who did not appear to explain why Scheduled Caste students were paid their scholarships late.

What the

audit found CAG Report No. 36 of 2025, tabled on 4 February 2026, examined pre-matric and post-matric scholarships for SC students:

• Delay: 40.75 lakh beneficiaries in 14 States were paid late, with delays of 1 to 90 months.
• Exclusion: more than 3.5 lakh eligible students received nothing.
• Leakage: over 6,000 non-SC persons were paid and over 5,700 payments were made without proper income-eligibility checks.
• Errors: there were double, short and excess payments.

The rule as written The Constitution separates audit along the lines of whose accounts are involved.

Under Article 151, CAG reports on Union accounts go to the President and then Parliament, while reports on State accounts go to the Governor and then the State legislature. State executives answer to their own Assemblies under Article 164(2). The PAC examines Union accounts.

The rule as practised A Centrally Sponsored Scheme mixes both levels.

The Union designs the Post-Matric Scholarship, pays 60 percent of its cost (90 percent in North-Eastern and Himalayan States) under a pattern set in the 2020-21 revamp and relies entirely on State machinery to verify students and pay them.

When the PAC questioned the Union, it was told delivery is the States' responsibility. When it summoned the States' senior officials, none of the six appeared. The Union government is answerable to Parliament for the money it spends, but not for State execution.

The States are answerable to their own legislatures for State execution, but not for the Union's scheme design. For students who were paid late or not at all, no single body is clearly answerable to the institution that has the audit findings in front of it.

Why the

privilege motion is a test Rule 222 lets a member raise a breach of privilege of the House or its committees, but only with the Speaker's consent. The Committee has decided to move the motion; whether it is admitted is for the Speaker.

Gemini's research found no comparable precedent of a privilege motion succeeding against several sitting Chief Secretaries for non-attendance. Because privileges are uncodified, it remains unsettled whether a parliamentary committee can compel State officers on matters that are partly the State's own.